text:
We are living in interesting times: an app that says 'Yo' gets $1 million in funding, while worthy products (remember RemarkableHire?) languish. Every so often I like to look around and see who is actually doing something interesting in online recruiting...and surviving. So let's take a look:
That's just a taste, by the way. Several services/sites changed their offerings/names/model during the three weeks I was doing research. A sign of the times! Take a look, see how they work, and if they give you ideas for your recruiting.
Views: 534
Jeff - this is an awesome run down of some of the best tools on the market. Can't thank you enough for writing these up and featuring some of these awesome talent technologies for the recruiters and sourcers on this site - a few new ones on here for me to check out, too, so thank you. It was great seeing you in Orlando; appreciate your continued support of RecruitingBlogs and amazing advocacy for our industry.
You are most welcome!
PS: I like that you call out Smarterer for its name, but it's backed by a company with an even sillier name: Google.
and since I did the original research, they seem to have backed off the name and are focusing on 'Flock'. But man - double 'er' - not easy to say or see!
Thank you very much for this list, Jeff. Do you have access to the names of additional new companies that you've researched? I'm very interested in finding out about recruiting product/service startups.
Keith email@example.com
Keith, my best advice is follow my blog (www.jobboarddoctor.com). Every 2-3 months I round up the most interesting sites. I gather the info from a bunch of different sources. - Jeff
Thankyou very much, Jeff. Much appreciated.
very cool and thank you
Great List Jeff. I would add:
recruitifi.com (crowdsourcing recruiters / candidates)
greenhouse.io (how to do ATS - clients include Uber and Airbnb, Pinterest)
recruitics.com (recruitment analytics platform - similar to Joberate - where to spend your recruiting $$)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
OCEAN CITY – On Saturday, Sept. 6, Tropical Storm Hanna
roared through town, bringing heavy rains and winds of 30 to 40 knots. That
evening however, as the storm passed, the winds shifted offshore and began to
groom some of the best waves seen at a local contest in years, just in time for
the 2008 K-Coast/Reef Open.
With only four
divisions, it made for a smooth running contest and four man heats, a rare
treat for such events. As usual, the Open Shortboard was the most hotly
contested. Lots of great surfing went down as they worked through the
elimination rounds, then the quarterfinals, then semi finals, until only four
were left. Vince Boulanger was going bigger than ever on Sunday, pulling a
couple of reverses and lots of vertical snaps to take first place over Travis
Knight, who almost matched Boulanger wave for wave. Down the beach a little,
Brad Beach linked together a series of good snaps to take third place over Roy
Harrell who came in fourth.
In the Open Girls, the
friendly rivalry between Jasset Umbel and Rachel Harrell that has gone on for a
few years now, completed yet another chapter, with a close finish that saw
Harrell taking first place. Jenna Landon put together a couple of nice snaps
and took third, edging out Katilyn Curran who finished fourth.
Jasset Umbel still
managed to score a first-place win as she entered the Open Groms as the only
girl and ended up taking first place in a surprise upset. Austin Deppe pulled
off some nice fin free snaps taking second place over third place Seth Conboy
and Brad Flora in fourth
Big, hollow waves aren't
necessarily the best conditions for longboarding, but don't tell that to Jake
Buchler, who seems to thrive when it gets gnarly. He managed to walk the nose,
hang five and do some high performance maneuvering to take first place.
Meanwhile, old school Dean Thompson took out his 1962 vintage Greg Noll and got
a barrel to take third place over a ripping Colin Herlily who came in third
over fourth place finisher and K-Coast partner Chris Shanahan.
Another big winner for
the day was the Ocean City Firefighters and Paramedics Association, the
beneficiary of all proceeds raised from the contest. K-Coast Surf Shops in Ocean City
along with the Eastern Surfing Association created this event 10 years ago as
an annual fundraiser for the Ocean City Career Firefighters and Paramedics
Association. This year's event raised approximately $2,000.


text:
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text:
PHP is one of the most popular scripting languages on the internet today, and one of the easiest to get into. Whether you're a PHP newbie, or an experienced code-slinger, there is always something new to discover. A function you're unfamiliar with a killer timesaving tool, a technique that you forgot about...
Object Oriented PHP
Object Oriented PHP for Beginners
Killer PHP teaches the basics of Object Oriented PHP. An easy to follow 5-page guide with videos to go along with the article.
PHP for Beginners: Building Your First Simple CMS
Jason Lengstorf shows how to build a very simply object-oriented Content Management System with PHP. While not a ready-to-use solution, due to a few security holes, it nonetheless does a good job at teaching a real-world use for PHP.
Learning OOP in PHP ASAP!
An authoritative into to PHP OOP here at NETTUTS. Jo‹o Gradim does a thorough job at explaining the basics of Object Oriented Programming in PHP, with plenty of clear code examples and comments.
SQL Injection Prevention
A brief primer on SQL injection and how to counter it.
Password Hashing
One of the worst things you can do security-wise is to store users' passwords in plain text. A lot of people use the same passwords on multiple websites, and if someone manages to gain access to your user database, they will have the users' passwords for everything. You should avoid this by encrypting the passwords with some simple PHP functions.
Security Corner: SQL Injection
Chris Shiflett explains SQL injection, and covers a few permutations of the exploit, along with instructions on how to prevent it.
5 Helpful Tips for Creating Secure PHP Applications
Avoid five of the most common security issues in PHP programs, three of which involve user input. If someone isn't cross-site scripting or injecting SQL, they're reading your error messages to find other ways to exploit your scripts. Don't give those pesky script kiddies any room to sabotage your application.
Email spam isn't as bad as it once was, thanks to improved filtering technology. Now we have a greater menace: Comment spam. Any site with user-contributed messages, such as a forum or blog, could quickly have hundreds of junk messages, filled with links to questionable sites, added to the comment area. Luckily there is Akismet, a spam filter for just this sort of thing. WordPress blogs can use a simple plugin, and other sites can take advantage of the spam-nuking goodness through an API.
Bots, they're annoying, but what can you do about them? For blog comments, and similar applications, you have the wonderful Akismet filter, but what about other things? You could always use a CAPTCHA, one of those boxes where you enter the jumbled letters shown in an image. ReCAPTCHA provides such a service, with a unique twist. It helps old books be scanned into digital form, using CAPTCHA results to fix words that their computers couldn't read. A user is shown two words, one that ReCAPTCHA knows and one it doesn't, and has the user type both in. If the first word matches, it stores the value the user entered for the second, so the Internet Archive can aggregate the results and automatically figure out what the word is.
PHP Short Open Tag: Convenient Shortcut or Short Changing Security?
PHP offers a shortcut for the echo() construct, which looks something like <?=$var?>. It is often used by users of the CodeIgniter framework in Views, as a surrogate for a templating system. Could this convenient shortcut, which depends on short_open_tag being enabled in php.ini, be a security risk? Jeff Starr explains everything.
Prepared Statements in PHP and MySQLi
A few years ago, the MySQLi PHP extension was released to improve upon the existing one, known simply as MySQL, like the database software both extensions communicate with. One of the many improvements added was support for prepared statements, a method of querying the database that separates data from the query, which is arguably a more secure way of doing things.
Common Applications
PHP Contact Form
Sometimes it's a good idea to have a contact form on your website. It's more convenient than a mailto link, and you don't give out your email address right up front, which can help prevent spam. You can also, with a form, denote fields for mandatory information, which is useful in cases where you need certain information in order to provide an adequate response.
User Membership With PHP
User accounts are one the more common components of web applications. Allowing users to register and login isn't as hard as it may seem at first thought.
Parse RSS Feeds With SimplePie
RSS Feeds are one of the best things since sliced bread. Not only can you stay up to date with hundreds of websites' content, but you can parse them with PHP. You could, for a basic example, display the headlines from a feed on your website, and link them to the full article. Or you could grab the feeds from your social media profiles and pull them all onto your personal website.
How to Dynamically Create Thumbnails
When you deal with large images, it's often necessary to create smaller "thumbnail" versions. In gallery situations, you may want to display a grid of thumbnails that link to the larger versions. In a CMS you might want to have an option to upload an image to go with a post, and have a smaller version for display in certain areas. Such image processing is easily within the capabilities of PHP.
PHP Markdown
HTML isn't really the most user-friendly way to style text. Sure, some "ordinary" people know it, but overall the markup language is not something that most people want to mess around with. That's where Markdown comes in. Markdown is a simple method of marking-up text to be formatted a certain way. It uses common conventions such as surrounding a phrase in *asterisks* for italicization, **double-asterisks** for bold text, and > characters for quoting text. It's all easy enough for most people to grasp, especially since many people write plain text like that anyway. PHP Markdown is an implementation of Markdown for PHP. After including the class, you can convert Markdown-formatted text to HTML by passing the string to the Markdown() function.
Zebra Stripes
Have you ever noticed how, if you have a long list of data, such as a table showing several data fields, it can be hard to follow a line from one side to the other when you read it? You tend to confuse it with the line below if you're not careful. Zebra striping, despite the amusing name, is a technique that can much improve readability in such situations. In essence, you simply alternate the background color, switching between a light color and one slightly darker one, a simple feat for PHP.
Get Started With SimpleXML in PHP
In this "Web 2.0" age, more and more web services are making public APIs available, allowing you to access data from their applications from yours. You could pull messages from Twitter, videos from YouTube, search results from Yahoo, and then aggregate them all into a Facebook application in some manner. Most XML-based APIs can be interacted with through PHP5's SimpleXML functions, with which you can parse output and use as you wish.
Caching Dynamic PHP pages easily
If your website is on a shared hosting account, you need to be careful of how much processor power you are using at any given time, especially if you tend to get sizeable amounts of traffic. That's where caching comes in to play. Your web server can send-out pages quicker and more efficiently if it doesn't have to process PHP scripts on every page load. Caching is a technique that temporarily stores scripts' plain HTML output in a directory, and serves them instead of the script to improve performance. Every hour or so, depending on the application, the cache is emptied and replaced with the new output.
A lightweight and modular Model-View-Controller framework for PHP. Requires little configuration, and no command-line usage. CodeIgniter has plenty of useful classes for functions such as image manipulation, file upload, caching, and database I/O. Compatible with PHP4.
Another popular MVC framework. CakePHP is a little heavier than CodeIgniter, but has it's own advantages. It's quite full-featured, having plenty of thorough documentation and an impressive collection of helper classes developed by the community.
Symfony is a bit harder to use than CakePHP and CodeIgniter, requiring the use of the command-line to run configuration commands and to create applications. While it seems more involved, it is no less of a viable option for those who would feel comfortable with it.
Zend Framework
Developed by Zend Technologies, Zend Framework is licensed under the New BSD license. It is along the same lines as CodeIgniter and CakePHP.
Flourish is an object-oriented PHP framework, but not an MVC one. The library allows for a more free coding structure than other frameworks, being an included library rather than a foundation to build upon. It is supposed to reduce the amount of code required to get things done, but not dictate your file structure.
How to Build a Login System for a Simple Website
Build an object-oriented login system as you follow this hour-long tutorial. It's not a complete solution, leaving you plenty of room to expand and make it your own, but by the end of the screencast you should have a good idea of how to build a well-structure login system that will withstand SQL Injection.
WordPress as a CMS
WordPress is more than just a blogging tool. It's powerful enough to handle just about anything you throw at it. If functionality you need isn't built-in, it can be added with a plugin or some custom coding. WordPress works just as well to manage websites that are more page-based than post-based, and it can be extended to do nearly anything.
CodeIgniter: Create a Blog in 20 Minutes
A twenty minute video showing how to use CodeIgniter to create a basic content management system with posts, permalinks, and comments.
Build a Login and Registration System with XML
Some smaller projects may not require a full-blown database for login credentials. This screencast shows how to create a login and registration system that stores data in XML files instead. The tutorial covers several interesting PHP things, including file manipulation and the SimpleXML functions.
A Crash-Course in WordPress Plugin Development
In this screencast, Jeffrey Way walks you through the creation of a basic WordPress plugin to automatically rewrite unfavorable HTML in posts. Covers plugin structure and the basis of the WordPress hook system.
Using Custom Fields
The WordPress Write screen offers an option to assign metadata to a post when you are writing it. That data could be anything from a thumbnail URL to your current mood to a flag to enable/disable the display of part of the template. You can add and remove fields while editing a post, and later call the data programatically with the get_post_meta() function.
Creating Custom Write Panels in WordPress
Add a new meta box to the Write Post screen in WordPress. The tutorial uses post thumbnails as an example. The end result is a handy thumbnail URL field that creates a custom field to store the URL, allowing the theme to pull the image up with the post. If you make extensive use of custom fields, creating a meta box with a friendlier interface just might save you time in the long run.
10 Useful RSS-Tricks and Hacks For WordPress
Exclude categories from your RSS feed, put ads in your feeds, set a delay between when the post is published and when it shows up in the feed. Smashing Magazine gives ten hacks and tips for getting the most out of your WordPress site's feeds.
WordPress 2.7 Featuring Your Favorite Actions
Using the favorite_actions filter, add (or remove) items to the favorite actions drop-down in the upper-right of the WordPress 2.7 backend. Any page in the Admin can be added to the menu. You could do this from your theme's functions.php file, or through a plugin.
Easily display your last Tweet
Who doesn't use Twitter these days? The "A-List" bloggers were the early adopters, but now the Twitter community is full of developers, designers, politicians, businesses, celebrities, etc.. Wouldn't it be neat if you could put your latest "tweet" in your blog's sidebar? You could use a plugin, of course, but isn't it more fun to roll your own solution with a bit of PHP magic? Joost de Valk has some working examples to learn from.
Mastering WordPress Shortcodes
Shortcodes, introduced in WordPress 2.5, allow you to include things in posts with a simple statement such as [AdSense]. The placeholder is replaced with something useful whenever the post is displayed. To continue with the AdSense example, you could have any instance of [AdSense] replaced with your AdSense code.
How to Write a Wordpress Plugin
Writing a plugin is one of the best ways to contribute to the best ways to contribute to the WordPress community. If you have an idea for something to improve WordPress, put your PHP skills to use and make it happen. Devlounge has a comprehensive introduction to plugin development, which covers the major bases and should get you started in no time.
PHP 5 for Dummies by Janet Valade
A solid and easy to understand introduction to the PHP language. True to the series' reputation, this volume could potentially teach nearly anybody (even someone without prior programming experience) how to write PHP scripts. A very good primer on PHP, though the current edition has a few errors from the typesetting process, namely the substitution of underscores where double-quotes should be.
PHP Hacks by Jack Herrington
O'Reilly Media is famous for the tech-centric books they exclusively publish. They consistently produce quality guides to everything from Linux to JavaScript to iPods. PHP Hacks is no exception. This book, rather than being a ground-up intro, focuses on practical lessons in PHP. The book is full of "hacks," short tutorials filled with code snippets that show you how to do interesting and useful things with the language. A great book for intermediate-level PHP coders.
Wicked Cool PHP: Real-World Scripts That Solve Difficult Problems by William Steinmetz and Brian Ward
From the venerable No Starch Press comes this gem, a 200-odd paged paperback chock-full of useful script bits to help you solve the tricky problems that come up all to often. Whether you're a PHP newbie or an experienced code-forger, there's something for you in this book. Keep a pad of paper handy when you read it.
The PHP Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks by SitePoint
Inside The PHP Anthology, you will find not an introduction to PHP, but a more intermediate guide. It focuses on the Object Oriented approach throughout, and tries to give you a solid understanding of important and practical concepts that beginner books leave out, such as producing error-free output, XML web services, and the many aspects of security. It is full of useful tips and code snippets as well. Definitely worth a read.
Bonus: Some Useful PHP Functions
- Strtotime()
- Explode()
- Print_r()
- Serialize()
- Str_replace()
- Strip_tags()
- Rawurlencode()
- Htmlentities()
- Follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to the NETTUTS RSS Feed for more daily web development tuts and articles.


text:
Optical Fibers, or Fiber Optics, are often used in data transmission or light guide applications. Optical Fibers used in light guide applications transmit safe, no-heat light, which is ideal for medical, inspection, automotive, or display applications. A single Optical Fiber utilizes total internal reflection to transmit light, allowing bends along its path. Minimal light loss during transmission allows Optical Fibers to transmit light or data quickly over long distances. When bundled, Fiber Optics can transmit large quantities of data for telecommunication applications.
Bar None offers a variety of Fiber Optics, including jacketed or unjacketed optical grade or communications grade Optical Fibers. Optical grade Optical Fiber is ideal for general industrial lighting or short distance data transmission. Communications grade Optical Fiber is designed for optimal visible light transmission for digital or analog links. Jacketed Optical Fiber increases durability while decreasing stray light. Bar None also offers Optical Fiber components, including patchcords, collimators, faceplates, or the tools needed for cutting or stripping Optical Fibers.


text:
Loved ones of "Jimmy the Greek Taverna" owner Dimitrios Karaloukas gathered to celebrate his life at the Glades Road restaurant he owned and loved Friday, one day after the man was fatally stabbed by an employee police said was angry about a photo.
"He would just hang out, and just sprawl out. Had a nice personality. Just a very nice man — the whole family," one person said. "We all, everywhere, feel terrible."
Tilus Lebrun, 36, was arrested Thursday evening after deputies say he fatally stabbed Karaloukas in a restaurant because the boss took a photo of him without his permission, according to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.
He worked at Jimmy The Greek Taverna Restaurant in Boca Raton, where witnesses say he pulled out a knife and stabbed the restaurant's 61-year-old owner. Officials say the owner was sitting down in the restaurant when he was attacked by Lebrun. He was stabbed three times on his left side and once in his back and later died of his injuries.
An unidentified male who was an employee at the restaurant was also attacked by Lebrun. The victim was stabbed numerous times and is undergoing lifesaving surgery at Delray Medical Center, authorities said.
Deputies found Lebrun near the restaurant outside wearing an apron and holding a large knife. He later told deputies, "I killed him because he took my photograph on March 2nd and posted it on the internet," according to authorities.
Lebrun has been charged with first degree premeditated murder and murder while engaged in a certain felony offense.
He was being held without bond Friday. It is not known at this time if he has an attorney.


text:
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Day 2 With The Whale
After coffee and errands I went and picked up Declan and his friend from school. The boys acted like they were on a carnival ride! It was funny listening to them. This is a picture of them pointing at the people driving by who were pointing at us.
So I guess now that I can take pandas with or without a full load on the front I am going to have to get used to answering a whole lot of questions. I wonder how long that will last?
6 comments:
What fun. I really need an up thing like that in my life right now. I am not going to get it so I will just have to enjoy your fun.ReplyDelete
Wowee!~that looks like an ace treadlie.I wish they had been available in Australia 10 years ago when our children were a lot smaller. I'm not sure if I would like to park it in a car space,though.Drivers here would give me a lot of aggro.ReplyDelete
OF- I am happy to share! Having you visit is an "up thing" in my life, that is for sure!ReplyDelete
rpm- There are so many things I wish had been available back when my older ones were small! I remember being utterly banned from my bicycle when I was pregnant with Cameron (I was really sick when I was pregnant with Una and wouldn't have cycled even if you payed me to). As to parking spaces... if I drove my car I would have parked there anyway, so I am still taking up the same space. Other people can just deal with it. I still can't figure out why that guy didn't just make a u-turn and take anyone of the 6 parking spaces across the street instead of wait 10 minutes for this one (double parked in the bike lane the whole time, too).
That is really great. Hopefully some percentage of those pointers and questioners, however small, will be excited enough to go out and get one of their own, and it spreads!ReplyDelete
- christianJanuary 21, 2011 at 9:49 AM
Hurrah! We've been riding our Workcycles Bakfiets around Menlo Park and now Redwood City for a couple years. I see a few of them around Palo Alto too. I think they're an easier sell down here because flat riding to do errands is more of an every day possibility. We get nothing but smiles and positive comments from car drivers (especially when hauling the Christmas tree every year).ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 22, 2011 at 9:18 AM
Bravo! You & your family are trend-setters! Cheers! ;)ReplyDelete


text:
Editor's Note: Kelly Wallace is CNN's digital correspondent and editor-at-large covering family, career and life. She is a mom of two girls. Read her other columns and follow her reports at CNN Parents and on Twitter.
Story highlights
The American Academy of Pediatrics announced new guidelines on early literacy
Doctors should encourage parents to read out loud to infants and children, group says
Research: Low-income children hear fewer words than kids from higher-income families
President Barack Obama touted importance of reading out loud in new video
It's hard to keep up with so many statistics about modern parenting, but here's one that floored me when I heard it a few years ago: By 4, children living in poverty hear 30 million fewer words than children in higher income households, according to researchers.
Thirty million!
That is horrendous, but it gets worse: Hearing fewer words leads to learning fewer words, which means children start kindergarten with smaller vocabularies and a so-called "word gap." Often, they can't catch up when it comes to academic readiness and long-term achievement, studies have found.
READ: The 'word gap' in America's schools
This week, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced new guidelines that encourage doctors to talk to parents not just about nutrition and illnesses but about the importance of reading out loud, singing and talking during an infant's first days.
"Fewer than half of children younger than 5 years old are read to daily in our country," the group's president, James M. Perrin, said in a statement. "The benefits are so compelling that encouraging reading at young children's check-ups has become an essential component of our care."
Pediatricians see 16 million children 5 and younger every year in the United States, said Patti Miller, co-director of Too Small to Fail, a joint initiative of the Clinton Foundation and Next Generation, which is focused on helping parents close the "word gap" and improve the lives of children.
"So getting this word out through pediatricians and having them recommend to parents and support reading out loud to their children starting in infancy is so amazing and critically important," Miller said.
My husband and I read aloud to our girls, 6 and 8, every day from the minute they were born, and we still do it during breakfast or before bedtime. Their love of reading shows us they have certainly benefited, and it truly pains me to think about their peers who might have missed out before enrolling in elementary school.
READ: How to keep kids reading through the summer
President Barack Obama, in a video released by the White House on Wednesday, saluted the move by the doctor's group in connection with Too Small to Fail to help "bridge the word gap'" and increase children's chances of success later in life.
"We know that … if a black or Latino child isn't ready for kindergarten, they're half as likely to finish middle school with strong academic and social skills," Obama said.
"By giving more of our kids access to high-quality preschool and other early learning programs – and by helping parents get the tools they need to help their kids succeed – we can give those kids a better shot at the career they're capable of, and the life that will make us all better off."
The key is getting the message to parents who too often don't realize the importance of reading aloud, talking and singing in the early years, Miller said.
"While this is a big gap, the good news is that the solution is pretty straightforward and we know that if we can get this important message out to parents about why you need to talk, read and sing, it can go a long way in terms of ameliorating this word gap," she added.
READ: How not to let your kid's brain turn to mush over the summer break
The mission has some bipartisan support. Too Small to Fail released videos Wednesday of Cindy McCain, wife of Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain, former GOP Sen. Bill Frist and Hillary Clinton, who are teaming up to raise awareness about the importance of early literacy.
Clinton talked about how she sang to her daughter, Chelsea, every night when she was a baby. When Chelsea finally mouthed "No sing, mommy, no sing," Clinton went back to reading, she said in the video.
"Singing, reading or just talking is an important part of not only my daughter's brain development, but every child's," Clinton said. "Thanks to new research, we know that children's brains light up and make new connections when their parents speak to them from the earliest days, but many of our youngest kids aren't getting the support they need to grow and thrive."
Said Cindy McCain, "As a parent and former teacher, I'm very familiar with the way a child's eyes light up when he or she first starts to understand a new concept. Every moment a parent spends with a child, talking, singing, reading a bedtime story is an opportunity to make a lifelong impact in the child's life."
As part of the effort, Scholastic Inc. is donating 500,000 books for children up to 3 years old during the next year. The books will be distributed to 20,000 medical providers nationwide to be given to families during pediatrician visits.
The American Academy of Pediatricians and Too Small to Fail are also developing a toolkit to help doctors teach parents how they can add more communication with their infants and toddlers to every day activities such as diaper changes, meal time, bath time and bus rides.
READ: New screen rules for children from pediatricians
"Parents don't have a lot of extra time. They're working, they're often working multiple jobs and doing their best to get everything done in a day so what we're trying to do is make these tips very simple and straightforward," Miller said.
If you have an infant or a toddler or you know anyone who does, encourage them to sing, talk and read aloud to their littlest ones. Those activities are just as important as making sure they get all the food and sleep they need to thrive.
For more resources on how to communicate with your infant or toddler, check out tips here from Too Small to Fail.
Did reading to your children make a difference in their lives? Share your thoughts in the comments or tell Kelly Wallace on Twitter or CNN Living on Facebook.


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A descriptor system representation of the form
with E square and possibly singular and with A-sE a regular matrix pencil, is the most general description for a linear time-invariant continuous-time system. Such systems arise when modelling interconnected systems, constrained mechanical systems (e.g., contact problems) or performing system operations like conjugation or inversion.
Descriptor system descriptions frequently appear when solving computational problems in the analysis and design of standard linear systems. The numerically reliable solution of many standard control problems like the solution of Riccati equations, computation of system zeros, design of fault detection and isolation filters (FDI), etc. relies on using descriptor system techniques.
Many algorithm for standard systems as for example stabilization techniques, factorization methods, minimal realization, model reduction, etc. have been extended to the more general descriptor system descriptions. An important application of these algorithms is the numerically reliable computation with rational and polynomial matrices via equivalent descriptor representations. Recall that each rational matrix R(s) can be seen as the transfer-function matrix of a continuous- or discrete-time descriptor system. Thus, each R(s) can be equivalently realized by a descriptor system quadruple (A-sE, B, C, D) satisfying
Many operations on standard matrices (e.g., finding the rank, determinant, inverse or generalized inverses), or the solution of linear matrix equations can be performed for rational matrices as well using descriptor system techniques. Other important applications of descriptor techniques are the computation of inner-outer and spectral factorisations, or minimum degree and normalized coprime factorisations of polynomial and rational matrices.
The development of reliable numerical algorithms for analysis and synthesis of descriptor systems has been an active area of research in the last decade. For an overview of computational methods and software for descriptor systems see [1].
For the analysis of structural properties of descriptor systems like controllability, observability or minimality, algorithms based on orthogonal reduction of particular system pencils to appropriate staircase forms can be employed. Numerically stable algorithms for the structural analysis of descriptor systems have been proposed in [2]. The highly efficient, numerically stable structure exploiting algorithms for computing zeros of descriptor systems [3] as well as of various Kronecker-like forms [4] represent universal structural analysis tools of both standard and descriptor systems. The algorithms for minimal realization and pole-zero computations are the basis for numerically reliable approaches to perform conversions between various representations of generalized systems (polynomial, descriptor, rational) [5].
The synthesis methods for descriptor systems rely on algorithms for state-feedback stabilization using pole assignment and linear-quadratic techniques. Pole assignment and stabilization methods based on a generalized real Schur form technique, have been proposed in [6]. These techniques can also be employed to compute coprime factorizations of rational matrices. To fully exploit the essential non-uniqueness of the multi-input pole assignment problem, a parametric optimization based approach has been developed in [7] to solve this problem. This new approach uses a generalized Sylvester system based parametrization to solve a minimum norm robust pole assignment problem for a descriptor system.
By using descriptor systems techniques the fault detection and isolation synthesis problems can be solved in the most general setting. Several computational algorithms have been developed for the special need of fault detection. For example, the nullspace methods for the synthesis of fault detectors are based on numerically reliable algorithms for computing minimal proper rational nullspaces of rational matrices. Suitable algorithms based on reduction to a Kronecker-like form are described in [10,11]. Furthermore, the computation of least order detectors requires special computational algorithms for determining minimum dynamic covers. Such algorithms have been developed for descriptor systems [12] using extensions of the orthogonal reduction algorithms to compute controllability or observabilitystaircaseforms [2].
The DESCRIPTOR SYSTEMS toolbox has been developed:
The toolbox is based partly on the RASP-DESCRIPT collection of routines [1] and partly on the free control software library SLICOT [9], both implemented in Fortran 77. The underlying algorithms encompass computations like the determination of complete Kronecker structure of linear pencils, generalized pole assignment and stabilization, model conversions (descriptor state-space to rational/polynomial representations), general rational factorisations (inner-outer, normalized coprime), generalized inverses (left/right, week, Moore-Penrose), solution of systems of equations with rational matrices etc. This package illustrates the new trend in CACSD to employ high quality, robust control software written in high level languages (e.g., Fortran) in user-friendly environments like MATLAB via appropriate gateways (MEX-functions).
The toolbox main strengths are the guaranteed numerical reliability achieved by careful selection of employed algorithms and software, and the high computational efficiency achieved by implementing critical structure exploiting computations as MEX-functions based on high quality robust numerical software available in the Fortran libraries LAPACK, SLICOT and RASP-DESCRIPT. The toolbox fully supports both standard and descriptor systems by employing specific algorithms. Also all functions are available for both continuous- and discrete-time systems. User friendly operation is achieved by object oriented manipulations based on the MATLAB Control Toolbox system objects.
Version 1.0 of the Descriptor Systems Toolbox is described in [8], where the underlying algorithms are also indicated and several examples illustrating the basic operations are given. The implementations of all functions exploit the best of MATLAB and Fortran programming, by trying to balance the matrix manipulation power of MATLAB with the intrinsic high efficiency of carefully implemented structure-exploiting Fortran codes available in LAPACK and SLICOT. This approach illustrates the possibility of turning high complexity structure-exploiting algorithms into numerically robust and user-friendly CACSD software. This paradigm is applicable to the development of high performance computer-aided control engineering environments.
Related publications:
[1] Varga, A.:
Numerical algorithms and software tools for analysis and modelling of descriptor systems. Prepr. of 2nd IFAC Workshop on System Structure and Control, Prague, Czechoslovakia, pp. 392-395, 1992.
[2] Varga, A.:
Computation of irreducible generalized state-space realizations.Kybernetika, 26:89-106, 1989.
[3] Misra P., Van Dooren P., Varga A.:
Computation of structural invariants of generalized state space systems. Automatica, vol. 30, pp. 1921-1936, 1994.
[4] Varga, A.:
Computation of Kronecker-like forms of a system pencil: applications, algorithms and software. Proc. of IEEE International Symposium on Computer Aided Control System Design, CACSD'96, Dearborn, MI, CACSD '96, pp. 77-82, 1996.
[5] Varga, A.:
Computation of transfer function matrices of generalized state-space models. Int. J. Control, 50:2543-2561, 1989.
[6] Varga, A.:
On stabilization methods of descriptor systems. System & Control Letters, vol. 24, pp. 133-138, 1995.
[7] Varga, A.:
A numerically reliable approach to robust pole assignment for descriptor systems. Future Generation Computer Systems, vol. 19, pp. 1221-1230, 2003.
[8] Varga, A.:
A DESCRIPTOR SYSTEMS toolbox for MATLAB. Proc. of IEEE International Symposium on Computer Aided Control System Design, CACSD'2000, Anchorage, Alaska, 2000.
[9] Van Huffel, S., Sima, V., Varga, A., Hammarling, S., Delebecque, F.:
High-performance numerical software for control. IEEE Control Systems Magazine, vol. 24, pp. 60-76, 2004.
[10] Varga, A.:
On computing least order fault detectors using rational nullspace bases. Proc. of IFAC Symp. SAFEPROCESS'03, Washington DC, USA, 2003.
[11] Varga, A.:
On computing nullspace bases - a fault detection perspective.Proc. of the 17th IFAC World Congress, Seoul, Korea, 2008.
[12] Varga, A.:
Reliable algorithms for computing minimal dynamic covers for descriptor systems. Proc. of MTNS'04, Leuven , Belgium, 2004.


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This article is more than 1 year old
Punters tune in to mobile TV trial
Is there no escaping Eastenders?
A mobile TV trial has kicked off in Oxford to test whether there's a market for TV on the move. The experts reckon that in Europe at least, the evidence suggests that beaming TV to mobile devices can be a mass market service.
Despite the optimism, the Oxford trial will assess the technical practicalities of the service, how well it's received by punters and whether they'll be prepared to pay for TV on the go.
O2 and Arqiva (previously known as NTL Broadcast) have hooked up with Nokia to test what's been described as the "UK's first trial of full multi-channel mobile TV".
The 400 O2 punters taking part in the six-month pilot have each been given a Nokia 7710 smartphone which they can use to watch the 16 channels on offer. Channels include the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, Cartoon Network and Sky News, among others.
Said O2 CTO Dave Williams: "As an emerging industry, mobile TV will require a willingness of operators, regulators, broadcasters and handset suppliers to strike new deals.
"Regulators need to licence new spectrum, which will allow global economies to exist, broadcasters and publishers will need to tackle digital rights issues and operators develop workable revenue sharing partnerships."
The service is based on DVB-H (digital video broadcasting - handheld) transmission technology and works by beaming a signal to a digital TV receiver, which is attached to Nokia's 7710 smartphone, transforming it into a portable TV. ®


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Normally, male California mice are surprisingly doting fathers, but new research published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology suggests that high anxiety can turn these good dads bad.
Unlike most rodents, male and female California mice pair up for life with males providing extensive parental care, helping deliver the pups, lick them clean, and keep them warm during their first few weeks of life. Experienced fathers are so paternal that they'll even take care of pups that aren't theirs. "If we place a male California mouse in a test cage and present it with an unknown pup, experienced fathers will quickly start to lick and huddle with it," said Trynke de Jong, a post-doctoral researcher at University of California, Riverside.
Inexperienced males, on the other hand, aren't always so loving. "Virgin males show more variability," de Jong explained. "They may behave paternally, or they may ignore the pup, or even attack it. We want to understand what triggers these three behavioral responses in virgin males."
De Jong and her colleagues thought this variability might have something to do with social status. In other species—including another rodent, Mongolian gerbils—dominant virgin males are more likely than subordinate ones to kill pups. Perhaps social status influences parenting in California mice as well.
To test this, de Jong and her colleagues paired up 12 virgin males in six enclosures, and performed several tests to see which was dominant. First was a food competition. "If a cornflake is dropped in the cage, the more dominant male will manage to eat most of it," de Jong said. The researchers also observed each mouse's urine marking. "Dominant males will make more, smaller, and more widespread marks than subordinate males," said de Jong
After determining the mightier mouse in each pair, the team tested parental behavior by introducing a pup. Contrary to the hypothesis, scores on the dominance tests did not predict whether a male licked or huddled up to the pup. However, the research did turn up signs that anxiety, not status, plays a role in paternal behavior.
Males who shied away from urinating the middle of a new enclosure—a behavioral signal that a mouse is anxious—were slower to approach a pup. Further tests showed that less paternal males had higher levels of the vasopressin in their brains. Vasopressin is a hormone that is strongly associated with stress and anxiety.
"Our findings support the theory that vasopressin may alter the expression of paternal behavior depending on the emotional state of the animal," de Jong said. She believes these results could shed light on the role of stress in paternal care in other mammals—including humans.
Trynke R. de Jong, Aniko Korosi, Breanna N. Harris, Juan Pablo Perea-Rodriguez, and Wendy Saltzman, "Individual Variation in Paternal Responses of Virgin Male California Mice (Peromyscus californicus): Behavioral and Physiological Correlates." Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 85:6 (November/December 2012, published online now http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/665831).
Physiological and Biochemical Zoology primarily publishes original research papers in animal physiology and biochemistry with a specific emphasis on studies that address the ecological and/or evolutionary aspects of physiological and biochemical mechanisms. Studies at all levels of biological organization from the molecular to the whole organism are welcome, and work that integrates levels of organization to address important questions in behavioral, ecological, evolutionary or comparative physiology is particularly encouraged.
Physiological and Biochemical Zoology


text:
Contributed by:
Betty Nieuwenburg
Project Manager of the KB Project DNEP-implementation
Expanding Visions BV
Baam, The Netherlands
<[email protected]>
In September 2000, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), the national library of The Netherlands, teamed up with IBM-Netherlands in the project DNEP-i (Deposit of Netherlands Electronic Publications-implementation) to actually create solutions for preservation and long-term access of electronic publications (ep's). In the same month, the British Library signed a contract with IBM-UK to develop a deposit system.
Starting several years ago, the KB engaged in local and international projects (e.g., NEDLIB)
<http://www.kb.nl/coop/nedlib> toward building an operational system. Within two years, the KB and IBM will build an OAIS-compliant deposit system for the Deposit of Netherlands Electronic Publications (DNEP). The project also includes applied research for creating the long-term planning function of the OAIS mode <http://www.kb.nl/coop/nedlib/results/OAISreviewbyNEDLIB.html>. Both the emulation and the canonical transformation approaches are being considered. For the latter approach, a proof of concept for data preservation is executed. For information on these approaches, see <http://www.almaden.ibm.com/u/gladney/Lorie.pdf> and
The strategy
In order to preserve ep's and to guarantee long-term access to the information contained in them, the KB has adopted NEDLIB (Networked European Deposit Libary) guidelines. Essentially these guidelines include two steps: creation of a high quality and well controlled environment (deposit system) for storage and maintenance of ep's; and transfer of the ep's from their original environment to the deposit environment. One of the NEDLIB guidelines requires the deposit system be designed and implemented as a separate entity within the organization's Information and Communication Technolgy (ICT) environment.
Before starting the DNEP-i project, in 1999 the KB investigated the feasibility of obtaining an operational deposit system through a Request for Information (RFI). In essence, such a system should support three main functions: archiving, preserving, and long-term access. The KB concluded that the archiving and preserving functions could be obtained from the ICT market. For long-term access, it seemed possible to commission applied research that, within a few years, would probably result in the required functionality.
The realization
After the promising RFI response, the KB set up a European tendering procedure to find a partner to build an operational deposit system. This Request for Proposal (RFP) procedure was innovative in that the KB only made up a detailed list of functional specifications, whereas the technical solutions had to be proposed completely by the suppliers. The KB provided as much information as possible and organized meetings for interested parties so the parties could form alliances to offer solutions. Everything was done to stimulate the interested parties to think seriously about tackling the problem in a way that would achieve the best possible result. Information about both the RFI and RFP can be found at <http://www.kb.nl/dnep-project>.
Following the RFP procedure, IBM Netherlands was selected as supplier of hardware and software and as system developer. On one hand, IBM offered a system for large-scale archival storage and preservation of electronic material based on the OAIS-model. On the other hand, IBM offered a practical study on the issue of long-term preservation solutions. The KB demanded that design of the system and study of the long-term issue would be strictly connected to one another.
The DNEP-i project began in September 2000. As indicated above, the project is divided in two parts: design and implementation of the deposit system, and applied research for long-term access. The deposit system must meet the demands of scalability, openness and modularity. The KB formulated these demands to make the system durable. In addition, the results of the long-term preservation (LTP) study had to be applicable to the deposit system. Thus, in the near future an operational LTP-module can be fitted into to the system. IBM has developed the data model of the system taking this into account.
The KB insisted that the LTP study lead to practical solutions, instead of to another research report in this field. The LTP working group performing the study and providing a proof of concept is chaired by IBM, and the group consists of KB experts in the field of document handling, as well as Raymond Lorie of IBM USA
and Jeff Rothenberg of RAND Europe. In addition, the British Library preservation officer is involved in the working group as an observer. Information about the project DNEP-implementation can be found at <http://www.kb.nl/dnep-project>.
The joint effort of the KB and IBM in the DNEP-i project will result next year in an OAIS-compliant operational deposit system as well as pave the path for the development of a Preservation Planning module. Up to now, this innovative and complicated project is developing successfully and on schedule. As DNEP-i project manager, I consider critical successes that the project was scoped carefully and that both partners, the KB and IBM, have discussed, in advance and in detail, the requirements for the system. It took three months to compose a detailed contract between the KB and IBM, but after that, both parties knew exactly what to expect of each other. Furthermore, the focus of the project is carefully maintained. Last, but not least, the two project partners, the KB and IBM, enjoy open and positive cooperation.
Many thanks to Johan Steenbakkers for his comments on this article.
Contributed by:
William E. Moen, Principal Investigator
Fellow, Texas Center for Digital Knowledge
Assistant Professor, School of Library and Information Sciences
University of North Texas
Denton, Texas, USA
<[email protected]>
The Z39.50 Interoperability Testbed (Z-Interop) Project <http://www.unt.edu/zinterop/> invites integrated library system vendors, Z39.50 developers, and individual libraries to participate in Phase 1 interoperability testing.
Z-Interop is an applied research and demonstration project funded by the U.S. federal Institute of Museum and Library Services <http://www.imls.gov/> through a National Leadership Grant awarded the School of Library and Information Sciences <http://www.unt.edu/slis/> and the Texas Center for Digital Knowledge <http://www.txcdk.org/> at the University of North Texas (UNT). Z-Interop is developing rigorous methodologies, test procedures, and measures to assess interoperability between systems using the ANSI/NISO Z39.50 standard protocol for information retrieval. The goal of Z-Interop is to improve Z39.50 semantic interoperability among libraries for information access and resource sharing.
Specifically, Z-Interop provides a technically and organizationally trusted testing environment for Z39.50 clients and servers configured to support the Bath Profile: An International Z39.50 Specification for Library Applications <http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/bath/bp-current.htm> or the U.S. National Z39.50 Profile for Library Applications (current draft <http://www.unt.edu/zprofile/Profile/specifications.htm>).
A team of researchers at UNT is conducting research, prototyping components of the testbed, and developing policies and procedures for interoperability testing. The Z-Interop testbed consists of the following components:
A Call for Participation available on the Z-Interop website details the Phase 1 testing opportunities.
The project is under the direction of Dr. William E. Moen, a Fellow of the Texas Center for Digital Knowledge and assistant professor at UNT <http://www.unt.edu/wmoen>. For For additional information about Z-Interop, see the project website <http://www.unt.edu/zinterop> or contact Dr. Moen <[email protected]>.
Contributed by:
Thibault Heuzé
CORDIS Content Team - external contractor
Brussels, Belgium
<[email protected]>
About CORDIS
The European Commission's Research and Development Information Service was created in 1990 to foster awareness on exploitable European-funded research results. This mandate has clearly evolved following the integration of all information on the Internet in 1994. Today, CORDIS aims to provide participation information on research project funding, to facilitate exploitation of research results and technology transfer, to further promote understanding of innovation policies, and to assist the research community.
CORDIS can be considered the "European Innovation Portal", because it brings together the main stakeholders of European research and gives free access to key documents and information on innovation policy. More than 150,000 unique users worldwide visit the searchable, dedicated web site and database services monthly to learn more about various issues, such as available funding, potential partners, valuable technology, policy trends, legal and financial information, and more at <http://www.cordis.lu>.
European research funding opportunities
The European Commission offers funding for different kinds of research projects and clusters. The multi-annual research program is divided into thematic fields and key actions ranging from biotechnology to digital library research or e-learning. CORDIS operates as the official information source to get Calls for Participation information in order to benefit from current funding opportunities (see the Fifth Framework Programme at <http://www.cordis.lu/fp5/src/over.htm>). American organizations may participate in such programs under specific conditions (see <http://www.cordis.lu/inco/src/parti.htm#unitedstates>).
Technology for spin off
The service also provides a comprehensive review of funded research projects as well as a window on the best research results. Visit the CORDIS Technology Marketplace at <http://www.cordis.lu/marketplace> to access clear descriptions of available technologies and key contacts in business, science or society-related research.
For specific information on digital library research, please visit the Information Society Technologies' pages at <http://www.cordis.lu/ist/ka3/digicult/home.html> or read a recent related article at <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue5/cordis/>.
News on future research trends in Europe
CORDIS hosts a daily News Service covering all European research and innovation developments and activities, funding opportunities, research breakthroughs and events. The News Service also highlights benchmark study outcomes, like the recently published European innovation scoreboard, as well as interviews with international research players. Visit <http://dbs.cordis.lu/news/en/home.html>.
Additionally, a new service "RTD beyond 2002" follows current developments towards the adoption of a new European multi-annual research program (2002-2006). The service provides official documents, key figures and contributions from various stakeholders willing to shape future priorities of the European policy -- namely through the creation of a "European Research Area" (ERA). (See <http://www.cordis.lu/rtd2002>.)
Key contacts and assistance networks in European States
The service gathers information on national research infrastructures, policies and activities (see <http://www.cordis.lu/member-states>). CORDIS can help you identify the relevant contacts at either the EU or national level. The Commission has also established various assistance networks to promote small enterprise and organization participation in research programs. Further, catered information is available regarding the European Union enlargement process.
For more information
Visit the CORDIS Guidance section <http://www.cordis.lu/guidance> and regularly consult the "What's New?" section <http://www.cordis.lu/whatsnew>.
Contributed by:
Anjlee Bhatt MSc, eVALUEd Research Fellow, and
Pete Dalton, CIRT Research Development Manager
Centre for Information Research (CIRT), University of Central England
Perry Barr, Birmingham, B42 2SU, UK
Contact: <[email protected]>
The Centre for Information Research (CIRT) at the University of Central England announces eVALUEd, a project to develop a transferable model for e-library evaluation in higher education and to provide dissemination and training in e-library evaluation.
The project has been awarded £178,000 under the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Fund for the Development of Good Management Practice over a 30-month period. The project, which commenced in September 2001, comprises a 24-month research phase and a 6-month training and awareness phase.
The research element will entail examination of good practice in evaluation of electronic library initiatives in the UK and abroad, and will test a selection of the techniques and practices identified.
The project is expected to produce the following key deliverables:
Further information about eVALUEd can be found on the project website, and we invite you to join our public mailing list, which has been established to support the project and enable discussion of issues concerning the evaluation of electronic library initiatives in the UK and abroad.
For more information, see:
The eVALUEd website - <http://www.cie.uce.ac.uk/evalued>
Public Mailing List - <http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/digi-eval.html>.
Contributed by:
Polly Christie
Fine Art Project Manager
United Kingdom
<[email protected]>
Over the past few years, the Visual Arts Data Service has been concerned with providing, promoting and preserving digital resources, created throughout the UK, that relate to the visual arts. In so doing, VADS not only delivers a cross-searchable image database of significant UK-held art collections, but also has become an expert in the field of image digitization, metadata production and related issues.
For the first time ever, the creation of a National Fine Art Education Digital Collection is being investigated and implemented by VADS. In this new feasibility study, it is proposed that the crème de la crème of works held within UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will be hand-picked and delivered through a Virtual Collection, therefore serving as a high quality showcase of British Fine Art practice, generated by the alumni (both teachers and students) from the art schools and institutes in the UK.
VADS intends, through the creation of this pilot resource and feasibility study, to define best practices for the digitization and delivery of distributed Institute-held collections of Fine Art Education related materials. The sample will consist of works held in as many as 10 collections, along with the full digitization of the rich Council for National Academic Award's Art Collection, which includes work by many extremely important figures in British Art, such as Henry Moore, Bridget Riley and Richard Hamilton.
Issues investigated will include: copyright clearance, image digitization, direct digital capture, metadata creation and research, collection and item level descriptors, virtual delivery, and digital preservation. VADS will use the expertise it has gained to date to develop solutions for this distributed environment, cutting through institutional barriers and practices, and providing practical and prescriptive resolutions.
While establishing a protocol for sharing resources across institutions, the quality and relevance of individual works is paramount in order to guarantee the project's success. To that end, VADS has established a Hanging Committee consisting of eminent figures in British Fine Art Education, who will be instrumental in picking individual works, but will also act as consultants on the rationalism, processes and benchmarks established in the feasibility study, thereby highlighting scalability issues and defining models for the full implementation of a National Fine Art Education Digital Collection. As part of the investigation, VADS will also report on the state, number and nature of HEI-held collections. Dependant on these findings, it is anticipated that an expandable version of the project would firstly attempt to hold fine art works representative of all HEIs across the country, and then broaden the model to include the wider �visual arts'.
VADS will not only draw from the Hanging Committee, but will establish a list of key stakeholders from Higher Education, the Museums and Galleries community, the arts councils, funding bodies, digital libraries, information hubs and other institutions. The project will build relationships with these stakeholders by communicating with them to raise awareness of the initiative and its results, thus ensuring dissemination to relevant communities. The project will also pursue an appropriate level of participation from stakeholders, where applicable, and investigate the potential for joint-funding of future activity.
The end user community for the resulting pilot digital resource is identified as going beyond VADS primary audience of the UK HE / FE (Higher Education / Further Education) research, learning and teaching community, to provide for the broader promotion of UK HE associated fine art practice to a national and international audience.
For further information, please contact:
Polly Christie
Fine Art Project Manager
Visual Arts Data Service
Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College
Falkner Road
Farnham, Surrey GU9 7DS
Tel: (0)1252 892807
Fax: (0)1252 892725
Email: <[email protected]>
URL: <http://vads.ahds.ac.uk>
Contributed by:
Nicole Harris
Joint Editor of History in Focus
Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study
University of London
London, England
<[email protected]>
History in Focus <http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus> is a new thematic
on-line series from the Institute of Historical Research (IHR). Each
issue is designed to introduce a historical topic and to
help stimulate debate and interest. The main emphasis of the series is to
highlight reviews, books, research, web sites and events relating to the
issue's chosen topic. Additional features such as articles and resource
guides will also be included as appropriate. The series aims to act as a
quality-assured information resource for the learning and teaching of
The first issue of History in Focus was launched in Spring 2001 to mark
the centenary of the death of Queen Victoria. The current issue coincides
with the 40th anniversary of E.H. Carr's book What is History? and
concentrates on historiography, and the nature and theory of
history. Future issues will cover local, Irish, and
medical history.
History in Focus is published twice a year and is available free of charge
from the Institute of Historical Research web site at
<http://www.history.ac.uk>. The series has been developed in conjunction
with the "History On-Line for Teaching and Learning Project"
<http://www.history.ac.uk/search/welcome.html> based at the IHR. "History
On-Line" has received funding from the Joint Information Systems Committee
(JISC) under JISC 5/99 Developing the DNER for Learning and Teaching to
develop the service further. It is hoped that the series will appeal to
a large section of the history community.
Any queries or comments are welcome and should be sent to:
Nicole Harris
Institute of Historical Research
University of London
Senate House, Malet Street
London, WC1E 7HU, England
Email: <[email protected]>.
Contributed by:
Maggie Hite
Assistant Director
World Library Partnership
Durham, North Carolina, USA
<[email protected]>
Spend the summer of 2002 helping communities gain access to the information they need to build a better future. In light of the recent tragic events in the USA the WLP believes that global education and cross-cultural exchange are more important than ever. As an Inform the World (ITW) Volunteer Librarian, you can use your professional skills to help rural librarians in South Africa or Honduras. If living and working in these areas sounds like a challenge you would enjoy, join us for this exciting service project.
ITW 2000 volunteer Debbie Kilcup put it best when she said;
"We left not only a very functional and appealing facility behind for the eager learners, but also a piece of our hearts. We are different for the experience."
"I never imagined I'd find such a perfect fit to combine my interest in volunteering, traveling in developing countries, cross-cultural understanding and also make use of my skills as a librarian," said Kara Malenfant (ITW 2001).
Who: The World Library Partnership (WLP) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building global understanding by promoting literacy, learning and access to information. We believe that libraries empower individuals and enrich communities and we advocate for sustainable, community-based libraries in developing areas of the world.
What: The Inform the World Program will train and place professional librarians from around the world. The volunteers will conduct practical service projects determined by the needs of their South African and Honduran host libraries. Previous ITW volunteers have trained librarians in basic library skills. They've used their knowledge and creativity to help libraries reach out to and meet the needs of their communities. They have painted murals, taught workshops, made display boards, produced publicity fliers and helped clean, brighten and re-organize libraries.
South Africa: July 15 - August 15, 2002
Honduras: June 9 - July 9, 2002
The volunteers will have three days of training in Africa or Honduras. They will then spend three weeks working on service projects in their host community and will reconvene for a book fair and a debriefing/evaluation session at the end of the program.
Eligibility: WLP invites professional librarians and library school students from all disciplines to apply. We will also have placements for several Information Technology professionals. Flexibility, a sense of adventure and the ability to adapt to very basic living conditions are a must. Basic conversational Spanish is required for the Honduras program (English fluency required for the South Africa program).
Cost: $2,200. This includes placement, training, materials, in-country orientation and debriefing, accommodations, most meals, site visit by the trip coordinator during the project, and in-country transportation. Note: Airfare is NOT included in the cost of the trip.
Deadline: The application deadline is January 18, 2002. We welcome early applications. We will interview qualified applicants by phone and announce the final selections by the end of February. An application can be found at <http://rtpnet.org/wlp/itw2002/ITW02.htm> or contact Maggie Hite <[email protected]> or Mary Alice McCarthy <[email protected]>, or by phone at 919/479-0163.
The following announcement by Constantino Thanos appeared in ERCIM NEWS - News from DELOS - Network of Excellence on Digital Libraries.
"DELOS is planning to hold an NSF/EU All Projects meeting in Rome, Italy, 10 - 11 January 2002 (tentative date).
The European Commission's Information Society Technologies Programme and the National Science
Foundation are supporting substantial research concerned with digital libraries. Both expect to develop
enabling technologies as well as principles for DL design and operation, to study the economic and legal issues
surrounding electronic distribution of IR, and to better understand the social context -- for example, human
information needs -- in which DLs will operate. By and large, scientists involved in the EU and NSF projects have
not had the opportunity to meet regularly. A coordination effort in the DL field can help avoid duplication of
effort, prevent the development of fragmented digital systems, and encourage productive interchange of scientific
knowledge and scholarly data around the world."
"In this context, DELOS is planning to hold the first of a series of annual meetings to bring together scientists
involved in European and NSF projects. The objectives are to exchange working experiences and research
results in the field of digital libraries, and to establish collaborative links between on-going projects. From the US
side, participants will be representatives from the Digital Library Initiative (phase2) projects. From the European
side, representatives will be from EU funded Digital Library projects and from DL projects funded by European
National Initiatives."
"(Washington DC - November 5, 2001) The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) and the Optical Society of America (OSA) have entered into an agreement to expand Web access to OSA journals by creating a digital archive of issues published prior to 1995."
"Under this agreement, NRL's Ruth H. Hooker Research Library plans to assist the OSA in digitizing the following journals: Applied Optics from 1962 through 1994; Journal of the Optical Society of America A and B from 1984 through 1994, and Optics Letters from 1977 through 1994. NRL will scan these journals into high quality Portable Document Format (PDF) files so that they can be made available from OSA's Optics InfoBase Web-based repository in a format consistent with that of more recently published journals. Optical character recognized (OCR) text will be bundled with the PDF files delivered by NRL, enabling OSA to seamlessly integrate retrospectively converted journals with the digitally created journals already available through Optics InfoBase. In addition, NRL plans to add OSA journals to the more than 400 journals mounted locally at NRL and searchable through the Libary's TORPEDO Ultra system."
For more information or to request the full press release, contact the Public Affairs Office at NRL: <[email protected]>.
"DUBLIN, Ohio, Nov. 7, 2001--The OCLC FirstSearch Electronic Collections
Online database, available through the OCLC FirstSearch service, now
provides access to more than 3,500 journals from 60 publishers."
"New publishers that have agreed to provide journals through Electronic
Collections Online include:
"'Publishers are accepting electronic delivery of journals as a growing
trend, and they are recognizing the advantages,' said Tim Martin, OCLC
licensing associate. 'They have budgeted to meet the technical requirements
for electronic delivery of information, and now we're seeing the results of
those investments.'"
For more information, contact Jennifer Hamilton at <[email protected]>.
"CAMBRIDGE, Mass., October 30, 2001 - Ingenta, the world's largest resource for the search
and delivery of academic and professional research articles online, has launched reference
linking between ingenta.com, catchword.com, and the Chemical Abstract Service (CAS), and
collaborative linking with H.W. Wilson."
"Users can now follow more than 350,000 reference links from the full text hosted by Ingenta
to the ChemPort database, where they can retrieve a free abstract for their chosen citation
from CAS or other participating databases. In addition, they can link directly from
references to articles of participating ChemPort publishers. The agreement with H.W.
Wilson will facilitate mutual linking between Ingenta users and subscribers to H.W. Wilson
databases, which serve academic, public, school, and special libraries worldwide. Details
on the arrangement will be forthcoming in January."
For more information, contact Candice Perodeau <[email protected]>.
The International DOI Foundation Service Announcement 11-01
"Washington - Geneva, November 2001. Founding sponsors EDItEUR and the International DOI Foundation (IDF) will be joined by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), Accenture, ContentGuard, Enpia Systems, and Melodies and Memories Global (a subsidiary of Dentsu) in a Consortium formed to develop a Rights Data Dictionary - a common dictionary or vocabulary for intellectual property rights named < indecs >2RDD. < indecs >2RDD will be developed to enable the exchange of key information between content industries and ecommerce trading of intellectual property rights."
"Rightscom, the digital rights strategy consultancy, has been appointed project manager of the Rights Data Dictionary Consortium and < indecs >2RDD will be submitted to MPEG for its December Pattaya, Thailand meeting. The scope of < indecs >2RDD embraces the rights description framework, including rightsStatements, rightsAgreements, rightsTransfers, permissions, prohibitions, requirements, legal terminology, creation descriptions and financial terms and conventions. < indecs >2RDD will create a common data layer of rights terminology and semantics so software vendors can then map technology, thus facilitating and widening the choices open to rights holders seeking to develop protected delivery of digital content. Consumer experience will be enhanced by improving access to digital content."
The full press release is at <http://www.doi.org/news/011101-DRM.html#drm>.
"Bethesda, Md., USA � (October 27, 2001) NISO, the National Information
Standards Organization is pleased to announce the unveiling of its
completely revised web site accessible at <http://www.niso.org>. In
redesigning the web site, NISO aims to help all members of the standards
community find, learn about, and use standards information. The new
"Quicklist" feature is a simple list in numerical order of all approved
standards. All of NISO's approved standards are easily accessible on the
site. NISO is the only standards organization that makes its standards
available for free downloading. The web site also allows users to order all
NISO Press publications in hardcopy."
"In addition, users can find information on Standards Committees, their
membership, their progress and their working drafts. The Standards
Development Pipeline section shows users where each standard is in the
development cycle. Because NISO understands the global nature of the
information industry, you will also find material on the international
standards community and NISO's place in this community. The membership
section of the new NISO web site explains the benefits and opportunities
inherent in NISO membership and allows voting members to access private
sections where NISO business is conducted."
"Many web pages include a variety of links that point to in depth and related
resources. Each page also includes a direct link to the site searching
function, the NISO calendar, and contact information for NISO staff,
directors and Standards Committees. NISO has a goal to make this web site
the place to go for all sorts of resources about information standards and
welcomes your feedback."
The full press release is (or soon will be) at <http://www.niso.org>.
25 October 2001 - "The release of AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway marks a new era for research and discovery in Australian
Literature. <www.austlit.edu.au>. [Best viewed in Internet Explorer at the moment.]"
"...AustLit offers libraries and researchers a single entry point to authoritative, constantly updated information on
more than 40,000 Australian authors and more than 360,000 works of Australian creative and critical literature. Austlit
has just been released for free trial until the end of 2001."
"...Free access to the beta version of AustLit is available at <www.austlit.edu.au> until 31 December 2001. From January
2002, AustLit: Australian Literature Gateway is available to institutions, consortia and individuals by annual subscription.
The AustLit Gateway welcomes consortia proposals through its subscriptions manager, EBSCO, and aims to provide
access to as many Australian and international users as possible through such arrangements."
For more information, please contact Kerry Kilner, Content Manager, AusLit: Australian Literature Gateway at <[email protected]>.
"DUBLIN, Ohio, Oct. 25, 2001--Libraries that use the OCLC FirstSearch service can now link
from FirstSearch to their OpenURL-compliant link servers to integrate access to the
resources they provide to their users. The new OpenURL link allows libraries to deliver a
range of services to their users for items retrieved when searching FirstSearch databases."
"OpenURL, a web-based protocol for transmitting metadata, increases the visibility and
accessibility of resources by providing a way to link across those resources."
"...Libraries that have OpenURL servers in place may link to the servers from the OCLC
FirstSearch service. The link is managed locally by each library through the
administrative module of its FirstSearch account."
The full press release is at <http://www.oclc.org/oclc/press/20011025.shtm>.
October 16, 2001 - The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Scientific and Technical
Information (OSTI) announces its latest Web-based application. The Energy
Citations Database (1948 - Present) provides easier and faster access to
bibliographic records of the Department's scientific and technical
information (STI) from 1948 to the present, with links to electronic full
text when available.
This unique product is publicly available without charge to users and
contains approximately 2 million bibliographic records for energy and
energy-related STI from DOE and its predecessor agencies, the Atomic Energy
Commission (AEC) and the Energy Research and Development Administration
Energy Citations Database at <http://www.osti.gov/energycitations> encompasses
information from disciplines of interest to the DOE such as chemistry,
physics, materials, environmental science, geology, engineering,
mathematics, climatology, oceanography, computer science and related
disciplines. It includes citations to the various forms of literature used
to announce DOE's research results, including report literature, conference
papers, journal articles, books, dissertations, and patents. Regular
updates to the Database provide continued growth and ensure that results of
recent research and development are made available.
Energy Citations Database contains streamlined Web citations, based on
Dublin Core metadata. This set of elements was built through
interdisciplinary, international consensus around a widely used core set of
Basic and Advanced Search options are provided, and search results can be
sorted by relevance, publication date, system entry date, resource/document
type, title, research organization, sponsoring organization, or OSTI
identifier. In instances where a Persistent URL (PURL) is provided, the full
text is available via a link to the document. For other documents
identified by Energy Citations searches, information is provided about
full-text public availability.
Through a partnership between OSTI and the Government Printing Office (GPO),
the Energy Citations Database is also publicly available via GPO Access at
For more information, contact OSTI Director Walter L. Warnick at (301)
903-7996, <[email protected]> or Mary Schorn, Energy Citations
Product Manager, (865) 576-2413, <[email protected]>.
"Bloomfield, New Jersey - October 17, 2001 - Openly Informatics, Inc. (http://www.openly.com) today revealed a new tool that will simplify the use of the CrossRef linking system in CrossRef Affiliate Libraries.
"CrossRef was conceived as a technology to transform the flow of information and ideas everywhere, by offering the scientific and scholarly community a milestone for online publishing -- a collaborative reference linking system -- through which a researcher can click on a reference citation in a journal and immediately access the cited article. CrossRef links are widely being adopted by publishers to enable reference linking. Although libraries have been eligible for affiliate membership in CrossRef for almost a year, 1Cate Adapter for CrossRef is the first commercially available software designed to help integrate the CrossRef system into the library digital environment."
"[The] 1Cate Adapter for CrossRef lets a patron of an affiliate library retrieve links, manually or automatically, to over 3 million articles using bibliographic metadata, such as journal name, volume and page number."
The full press release is at <http://www.openly.com/pr/pr15.html>.
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DOI: 10.1045/november2001-inbrief


text:
By Robert Daniel, MarketWatch
Noble Energy and partners
TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Isramco Negev 2 LP, one of the key companies developing huge natural-gas reserves off northern Israel, got a boost from two prominent securities firms recently.
At Barclays Capital, analysts David Kaplan and Lydia Rainforth raised their rating on the stock to overweight from underweight and their price target by more than half, to 0.69 shekel ($0.17) a share from 0.44. Analyst Michael Klahr at Citigroup affirmed Isramco as his top pick among Israeli exploration-and-production companies with a target price of 0.79 shekel.
Explorers led by Houston's Noble Energy Inc. are developing some major energy fields for the country.
Kaplan and Rainforth raised their rating on Isramco given that production from the Tamar gas field is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2013, supply contracts with Israel's electric utility are approved by the government and in place, and financing is secure.
"Isramco has a 29% working interest in Tamar, which is world scale at 9 trillion cubic feet, and stands to be the major beneficiary from the initiation of gas supply," they wrote.
The developments are positives as well for Delek Group and three publicly traded subsidiaries, Avner Oil & Gas, /zigman2/quotes/206763019/delayed AVOGF 0.00% Delek Drilling and Delek Energy , they wrote.
Among the four, Kaplan and Rainforth particularly like parent Delek Group IL:DLEKG +0.57% because of its diverse energy portfolio and 50%-dividend-payout strategy. And the three subsidiaries are limited partnerships, with more complex tax calculations, while Delek Group is a corporation and doesn't face that issue, the analysts said.
The two analysts also affirmed an overweight rating on Ratio Oil Exploration LP , a partner in developing the Leviathan field, which the analysts call "one of the largest natural-gas discoveries globally in the past decade."
The analysts expect the current developers of Leviathan to bring in an additional strategic partners to help market the production, they said.
But they cut their price target on Ratio shares to 0.45 shekel from 0.56. That's because drilling has been halted in a deep oil target in the Leviathan field and might not resume until late in 2013; and it's unclear how much of the production from the field will be cleared by the government for export, the analysts wrote.
Late in trading Monday on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Isramco shares were quoted near 0.45 shekel a share. Ratio Oil was quoted at 0.25 shekel.
Field offshore Ashkelon
Klahr at Citi focused his note on Isramco's announcement that drilling at a field in shallow water offshore Ashkelon in the center of the country had reached its target and confirmed "substantial signs of natural gas."
The partnership drilling here still must confirm the so-called Shimshon field as a discovery and then test the pressure and composition of the gas, the analyst wrote. The field holds some 2.3 trillion cubic feet of gas.
Isramco holds 60% of the Shimshon field, while ATP Oil & Gas Corp. ATPG of Houston holds 40%. Delek Group and Noble Energy aren't involved in the Shimshon field.
By itself, Shimshon adds little to the Isramco investment case, but it helps highlight the Levant basin as a major gas producer, Klahr wrote.
Nonetheless, Isramco will benefit as the Tamar field comes on line and if the government enables the developers to export more gas, he wrote. The interim recommendations of a government panel are to enable the developers to export half the production from the major fields, Klahr wrote.