The European molecular biology laboratory

The need for collaborative ventures in Europe has long been stressed in the editorial pages of this journal, and more than ten years ago (Endeavour, 28, 54, 1969) we gave strong support for a proposal to establish a European Laboratory of Molecular Biology. For this we then incurred some criticism, on the ground that such a laboratory would weaken national academic institutes striving to establish themselves in this rapidly developing field. Nevertheless, we continued to maintain (30, 2, '71) ‘the great political and scientific importance of this [concept]—and of other such collaborative enterprises—if Europe is to maintain the initiative in fields where the great institutions of the United States have established a dominant position.’ In the event, the Laboratory was established at Heidelberg in 1974, though not formally opened until 1978. The Director-General, Sir John Kendrew, here surveys the policy and achievements of this important new institute.     

FROM PARIS TO NARRANDERA: ADAPTATION IN THE DIFFUSION OF ANTHRAX VACCINATION IN THE AUSTRALIAN PASTORAL INDUSTRY

In 1881 Louis Pasteur demonstrated to an incredulous world the efficacy of his vaccine for the prevention of the fatal disease anthrax in sheep and cattle. A decade later Pasteur's nephew and assistant, Adrien Loir, was manufacturing the vaccine in Sydney. But although Loir's operations were begun at the behest of local pastoralists, the diffusion of the Pasteur vaccine was not very successful in Australia. Within a few years it was virtually displaced from the market by the modified vaccine produced by two Australian men, John Alexander Gunn and John McGarvie Smith. The process of transfer and diffusion involved in that displacement is the concern of this paper. In particular, it highlights the importance of local adaptation for the successful diffusion of anthrax vaccination in Australia.     

Computer-mediated colonization, the renaissance, and educational imperatives for an intercultural global village

``The diversity of cultures in this world isreally important. It's the richness that wehave which, in fact, will save us from beingcaught up in one big idea'.Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the Web)addressing the 10th International World WideWeb Conference, Hong Kong.``Globalization must not be a new version ofcolonialism. It must respect the diversity ofcultures which, within the universal harmony ofpeoples, are life's interpretative keys'.Pope John Paul II.``It is the stillest words that bring on thestorm. Thoughts that come on doves' feet guidethe world'.The Stillest Hour, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.     

The venturesome economy: how innovation sustains prosperity in a more connected world

Tim Kastelle is a senior lecturer in innovation management at University of Queensland Business School (UQBS). He is managing editor of Innovation: Management, Policy &; Practice, the leader of the UQBS executive education and MBA innovation programs, and does research and consulting on the topic of management of innovation.

John Steen is a senior lecturer in strategy at UQBS. He currently holds an Australian Research Council grant to examine innovation in capital-intensive and project-based firms. He has published in a variety of strategy and innovation journals, but does not refer to any of them when he is talking to managers.     

John Hopcroft's views on China's education

Professor John Hopcroft at Cornell University is a Turing Prize winner (1986) and an educator with more than 55 years of teaching experience. For the past 10 years, Hopcroft has been coming to China to give courses to undergraduate students at Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) and has helped SJTU to improve the quality of computer-science education. He also chairs the Center on Frontiers of Computing Studies at Peking University (PKU), the Turing Class at PKU and the Hopcroft Center at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) in Wuhan, and is engaged in many other projects aiming to upgrade China''s computer-science undergraduate education. Recently, NSR talked with Professor Hopcroft to learn his views on education in China.     

Galileo: A ‘rehabilitation’ that has never taken place

The media have repeatedly reported that Pope John Paul II had officially admitted the error of the Catholic Church as far as Galileo is concerned and ‘rehabilitated’ him. Apart from enthusiastic, often exaggerated, headlines and comments, careful considerations of the details of the Pope's initiative lead to a different picture: despite the good intentions expressed at the beginning of the process, 13 years later it ended up as a failure, since the Pope's summary is vague and useless.     

敦煌绿洲1955 年至2010 年胡杨年生长季对气候变化的响应

利用敦煌绿洲气象站1955年-2010年日平均气温资料,采用气候倾向率、Mann-Kendall检验、相关分析及Morlet小波功率谱等方法分析了研究区胡杨生长季对全球气候变化的响应。结果表明：近56a来,研究区胡杨年生长季有开始日提前,终止日推后,年生长季天数延长的趋势;展叶始日有提前趋势,叶黄初日有推后趋势。胡杨生长季开始日、展叶始日分别与3月和4月平均气温呈负相关关系,胡杨生长季终止日、生长期天数及叶黄初日分别与10月、3月-11月及8月-9月平均气温呈正相关关系。胡杨生长季开始日、终止日、生长季天数、展叶期及叶黄初日均具有多个突变,存在3.77~8.33a的短尺度周期,这反映出研究区胡杨生长季对气候变化响应十分敏感。     

The Prometheus school of information economics

This paper reviews 20 years of information economics in Prometheus. It finds broad coherence about the theme of information as knowledge‐capital, as distinct from information as a message in a market‐space. The paper suggests that micro‐foundations for the Prometheus school of information economics should be based in evolutionary micro‐economic theory rather than in neoclassical micro‐economic theory.     

重庆市主城区降雨侵蚀力特征分析

文章根据重庆市自建气象站以来的降雨过程资料(1954～2001)，对重庆市主城区降雨侵蚀力(R)及其特征进行了研究和分析。研究结果表明，研究区降雨侵蚀力主要集中在5月～9月，48年里研究区年降雨侵蚀力值变幅均较大，但从整体上来看，趋势保持平稳，其离差系数Cv和变化趋势系数r值分别为0.65和0.061； 研究区次降雨量与次降雨侵蚀力，月降雨量与月降雨侵蚀力均呈乘幂关系，而年降雨量与年降雨侵蚀力呈现指数关系； 为了解决在降雨资料不足的情况下对降雨侵蚀力的计算，文章利用不同的降雨资料与侵蚀力之间进行相关分析，最终确定了适合研究区的两种降雨侵蚀力简易算法。     

Academic publishing riposte. Do not shoot the messenger

Iain Stevenson is Professor of Publishing and Director Emeritus of the Centre for Publishing at University College London. He has worked in the academic publishing area for many years and has been on the governing board of the Publishers’ Association. Current research is on the history of British publishing, on new publishing technology, and on the experiences of new authors in Britain and France.     

基因组的设计与工程化构建

合成生物学是利用工程化的思想来设计和构建新的生物基因组,是近年来的研究热点。近年来,对原核细胞支原体天然小基因组进行从头合成并进一步设计与构建最小基因组,对原核模式生物大肠杆菌基因组的不断删减及全基因组密码子简约化设计与人工合成测试,以及对真核模式生物酿酒酵母基因组人工设计与合成测试都取得了很大成功,极大地促进了我们对生命的理解。我国的基因组的设计与工程化构建方面的研究虽然起步较晚,但近年来取得了国际瞩目的成果。基因组的设计与构建为深入了解生命起源与进化,并为进一步构建具有强大应用功能的新型生命体奠定了基础。     

Science policy: two views from two decades

Science policy, as the theme appears in Prometheus over the last 20 years, has been represented by discussions of industrial competitiveness. Many comparative articles have appeared under this theme, as well as evaluations of policies aimed at innovation. By the mid‐1980s, articles in Prometheus were tracing the emergence of the knowledge economy, with some of its associated issues. The issue of human resources for the knowledge economy has received scant attention, however, but Prometheus authors have discussed public participation in science policymaking and setting priorities. Finally, authors have noted and analyzed the closer management of Australian science to direct it toward economic ends. Overall, Prometheus has tracked the dominant themes of science policy in other OECD countries well, and also given space to issues that are less prominent but nonetheless important.     

Teleports as precursors of the 21st century's information society

Abstract

All national information activities are increasingly interfaced through telecommunications. Today's users stand as witnesses to the formative stages of a totally networked society in the 21st century. Telecommunications technology lies at the root of formal concepts such as Inter‐Information Subjects Networks (IISNs) and National Information Systems (NISs), developed in the last few years. The term teleport refers to the new types of nodes that will form an overall integrated information traffic system. The challenge to all nations in the coming years is to provide or open these teleports to all types of national and social groups. Such teleports will give democracy a finished quality and otherwise bolster freedom by supporting the availability of all types of information.     

Comparison Between Serum hsCRP and LDL Cholesterol for Search of a Better Predictor for Ischemic Heart Disease

Acute myocardial Infarction is one of the major causes of morbidity & mortality in world and atherosclerosis is the major cause of ischemic heart disease. In order to determine the better clinical marker of atherosclerosis, we estimated serum low-density lipoprotein (LDL-C) and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). Hundred patients of myocardial infarction and 100 controls irrespective of age and sex were studied for these parameters over a period of 2 years. The statistical analysis showed that the serum hsCRP was significantly raised in myocardial infarction cases than controls (P < 0.01) but LDL-C was not (P > 0.05). We conclude that the serum hsCRP has better predictive value for risk of atherosclerosis.     

Prometheus unbound: 20 years of communication policy research

In this article I review 20 years of writing on communication policy in Prometheus. I examine the contribution Prometheus has made to three areas of knowledge about communication policy: communication itself, its histories, and broad notions of communication policy; telecommunications; and new communication technology. I suggest that it is in the latter two areas focusing on the technological dimensions of communication policy, that the journal has consistently contributed genuinely innovative work. Here the journal has fostered interdisciplinary writing and enquiry where policy and technology developments most required critique and new ideas.     

集三十载结晶成华章录期刊之哲思于史册——读《编辑哲思与践行》有感

介绍和评述了中华医学会杂志社领军人物游苏宁先生最新编著的《编辑哲思与践行》一书及著者所取得的学术成就。全书共五章,分别为恪守初心、砥砺前行,末技探究、日益精进,编辑哲思、办刊秘籍,百年老店、立德树人,学界泰斗、业界楷模。该书汇集了中华医学会杂志社近30年编辑学研究的代表性论文106篇,不仅是我国医学科技期刊编辑学研究的思想集萃,也忠实记录了这一中国医学期刊航母的发展与实践历程。     

A biochemical test based on pyrazinamidase activity for rapid differentiation of corynebacteria

A simple, rapid and inexpensive test is described based on the activity of the enzyme pyrazinamidase, which hydrolyses pyrazinamide to pyrazinoic acid. This test differentiates most of the corynebacteria possessing this enzyme from the exotoxin producing human pathogenic members of this group, i.e.,C. diphtheriae, C. ulcerans andC. pseudotuberculosis, which do not produce this enzyme. In our laboratory, 16 isolates ofC. diphtheriae and 75 isolates of non-diphtheric corynebacteria were rapidly identified, over the past three years.     

Innovation: principles,processes and policy. a review of the contribution of Prometheus in its first 20 years

This paper reviews the contribution that Prometheus has made over the past 20 years to the literature on innovation, innovation policy and technological change. I offer first a necessarily subjective view of how the research literatures of innovation and innovation policy have developed in recent decades. I then compare that account with an interpretation of the emphases and trends in the corresponding areas in Prometheus. The research literatures involved are vast, located in many specific discipline areas and cross many discipline boundaries. While my ‘home’ discipline is economics I believe much can still be learned from the flexible and imaginative use of economics to frame research inquiry in the innovation area.     

Extra Pulmonary Tuberculosis: A Diagnostic Dilemma

Tuberculosis remains a major public health problem globally, with India being one of the high burden countries. The common causative agent is Mycobacterium tuberculosis but in developing countries M. bovis is reported as a potential human pathogen. Almost 20% of all reported cases of tuberculosis are of extra pulmonary form of disease. Diagnosis of extra pulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) is not always possible with conventional methods, due to the long time required and the paucibacillary nature of samples; hence the need of rapid molecular methods. A prospective study was conducted on 300 patients of EPTB over a period of 5 years. These patients were suspected cases of tubercular meningitis, tubercular ascites and tubercular lymphadenitis. Samples analyzed were cerebrospinal fluid, ascitic fluid and lymph node fine needle aspirate. A two step PCR targeting hup B gene was used. Clinical response to anti tubercular therapy (ATT) was taken as positive (gold standard). PCR for hup B gene was positive in 147 samples out of 155 ATT responders. Of these 85.71% were infected with M. tuberculosis, 9.52% with M. bovis alone and 4.76% showed co infection with both M.tb and M. bovis. The sensitivity and specificity of PCR was 90.32 and 94.48% respectively.