Commentary on the Licensing Act 1662

Legislation prohibiting the publication of any literary work without prior licence.
Drawing upon both the Star Chamber Decree 1637 (uk_1637) and the Acts Regulating Printing during the Interregnum (see: uk_1643 and associated documents), the Licensing Act set out a comprehensive set of provisions concerning both the licensing of the press and the regulation and management of the book trade. In addition, it confirmed the rights of those holding printing privileges (or patents) granted in accordance with the royal prerogative (see for example: Day's privilege for The Cosmographical Glass (uk_1559b)) as well as those who had registered works with the Stationers' Company (uk_1557). It also introduced the first legal library deposit requirement. In force between 1662 and 1679, and then again between 1685 and 1695, the Act represents the last occasion on which the censorship of the press was formally and strategically linked to the protection of the economic interests of the Stationers' Company. Its lapse led the Stationers' Company to lobby parliament for renewed protection, ultimately resulting in the passing of the Statute of Anne 1710 (uk_1710).

Ion-Atom/Argon - Calculation of ionization cross sections by fast ion impact for neutral target atoms ranging from hydrogen to argon

A FORTRAN 90 program is presented which calculates the total cross sections, and the electron energy spectra of the singly and doubly differential cross sections for the single target ionization of neutral atoms ranging from hydrogen up to and including argon. The code is applicable for the case of both high and low Z projectile impact in fast ion-atom collisions. The theoretical models provided for the program user are based on two quantum mechanical approximations which have proved to be very successful in the study of ionization in ion-atom collisions. These are the continuum-distorted-wave (CDW) and continuum-distorted-wave eikonal-initial-state (CDW-EIS) approximations. The codes presented here extend previously published. codes for single ionization of. target hydrogen [Crothers and McCartney, Comput. Phys. Commun. 72 (1992) 288], target helium [Nesbitt, O'Rourke and Crothers, Comput. Phys. Commun. 114 (1998) 385] and target atoms ranging from lithium to neon [O'Rourke, McSherry and Crothers, Comput. Phys. Commun. 131 (2000) 129]. Cross sections for all of these target atoms may be obtained as limiting cases from the present code. Title of program: ARGON Catalogue identifier: ADSE Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/cpc/summaries/ADSE Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library Queen's University of Belfast, N. Ireland Licensing provisions: none Computer for which the program is designed and others on which it is operable: Computers: Four by 200 MHz Pro Pentium Linux server, DEC Alpha 21164; Four by 400 MHz Pentium 2 Xeon 450 Linux server, IBM SP2 and SUN Enterprise 3500 Installations: Queen's University, Belfast Operating systems under which the program has been tested: Red-hat Linux 5.2, Digital UNIX Version 4.0d, AIX, Solaris SunOS 5.7 Compilers: PGI workstations, DEC CAMPUS Programming language used: FORTRAN 90 with MPI directives No. of bits in a word: 64, except on Linux servers 32 Number of processors used: any number Has the code been vectorized or parallelized? Parallelized using MPI No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 32 189 Distribution format: tar gzip file Keywords: Single ionization, cross sections, continuum-distorted-wave model, continuum- distorted-wave eikonal-initial-state model, target atoms, wave treatment Nature of physical problem: The code calculates total, and differential cross sections for the single ionization of target atoms ranging from hydrogen up to and including argon by both light and heavy ion impact. Method of solution: ARGON allows the user to calculate the cross sections using either the CDW or CDW-EIS [J. Phys. B 16 (1983) 3229] models within the wave treatment. Restrictions on the complexity of the program: Both the CDW and CDW-EIS models are two-state perturbative approximations. Typical running time: Times vary according to input data and number of processors. For one processor the test input data for double differential cross sections (40 points) took less than one second, whereas the test input for total cross sections (20 points) took 32 minutes. Unusual features of the program: none (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Public awareness and views on unlicensed use of medicines in children.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN ABOUT THIS SUBJECT center dot There is increasing concern about the use of those medicines in children which have not been fully studied and licensed for childhood use. Such use is not uncommon, due in large part to a lack of availability of fully licensed products and formulations that are suitable for children. center dot There is little published information on the views of the public on this important area of paediatric care. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS center dot A survey of 1000 members of the public in Northern Ireland indicated that such use of medicines in children is not well known. center dot However, when informed about this practice, the majority believed that it would compromise safety and increase the likelihood of adverse effects. They also believed that parents/guardians should be told if their child was prescribed a medicine that had not been fully tested in children. center dot Participants in the survey indicated that they would be reluctant to involve their child in a clinical trial to help with the licensing process unless the child was suffering from a life-threatening illness. To explore awareness and views of the general public on unlicensed use of medicines in children and on the participation of children in clinical trials. Members of the public completed a questionnaire survey administered by face-to-face interview in public areas in N. Ireland. The main outcome measures were the views on unlicensed use of medicines in children and on clinical trials in children. One thousand participants (59.2% female) took part; 610 were parents. Most participants (86%) had no previous knowledge about unlicensed use of medicines in children. Being a parent did not influence this nor did being a parent of a child who suffered from a health problem (P > 0.05). Most participants (92%) felt that parents should be told about unlicensed use of medicines, with the doctor most frequently selected as the person who should inform parents. At the outset, only 1.8% of participants felt that the use of medicines in children was unsafe. However, having been informed about unlicensed use of medicines, this proportion increased dramatically (62.4%; P <0.001). Views on whether participants would enter a child of their own into a clinical trial varied according to the health status of the child (P <0.05) i.e. a child in good health (3.9%) vs a child with a life-threatening condition (41.9%). There is limited public knowledge of unlicensed use of medicines in children and a general reluctance to involve children in clinical trials unless the child to be involved has a life-threatening condition.

An exploratory study of Principal Investigator roles in UK University Proof-of-Concept processes: an Absorptive capacity perspective

The increasing emphasis on academic entrepreneurship, technology transfer and research commercialisation within UK universities is predicated on basic research being developed by academics into commercial entities such as university spin-off companies or licensing arrangements. However, this process is fraught with challenges and risks, given the degree of uncertainty regarding future returns. In an attempt to minimise such risks, the Proof-of-Concept (PoC) process has been developed within University Science Park Incubators (USIs) to test the technological, business and market potential of embryonic technology. The key or the pivotal stakeholder within the PoC is the Principal Investigator (PI), who is usually the lead academic responsible for the embryonic technology. Within the current literature, there appears to be a lack of research pertaining to the role of the PI in the PoC process. Moreover, Absorptive Capacity (ACAP) has emerged within the literature as a theoretical framework or lens for exploring the development and application of new knowledge and technology, where the USI is the organisation considered in the current study. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the role and influence of the PI in the PoC process within a USI setting using an ACAP perspective. The research involved a multiple case analysis of PoC applications within a UK university USI. The results demonstrate the role of the PI in developing practices and routines within the PoC process. These practices and processes were initially tacit and informal in nature but became more explicit and formal over time so that knowledge was retained within the USI after the PIs had completed the PoC process. © 2010 The Authors. R&D Management © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Extent and nature of unlicensed and off-label medicine use in hospitalised children in Palestine

Objective of the study: To determine the extent and nature of unlicensed/off-label prescribing patterns in hospitalised children in Palestine. Setting: Four paediatric wards in two public health system hospitals in Palestine [Caritas children’s hospital (Medical and neonatal intensive care units) and Rafidia general hospital (Medical and surgical units)]. Method: A prospective survey of drugs administered to infants and children <18 years old was carried out over a five-week period in the four paediatric wards. Main outcome measure: Drug-licensing status of all prescriptions was determined according to the Palestinian Registered Product List and the Physician’s Desk Reference. Results: Overall, 917 drug prescriptions were administered to 387 children. Of all drug prescriptions, 528 (57.5%) were licensed for use in children; 65 (7.1%) were unlicensed; and 324 (35.3%) were used off-label. Of all children, 49.6% received off-label prescriptions, 10.1% received unlicensed medications and 8.2% received both. Seventy-two percent of off-label drugs and 66% of unlicensed drugs were prescribed for children <2 years. Multivariate analysis showed that patients who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit and infants aged 0–1 years were most likely to receive a greater number of off-label or unlicensed medications (OR 1.80; 95% CI 1.03–3.59 and OR 1.99; 95% CI 0.88–3.73, respectively). Conclusion: The present findings confirmed the elevated prevalence of unlicensed and off-label paediatric drugs use in Palestine and strongly support the need to perform well designed clinical studies in children.

Clinical trials in cystic fibrosis

In patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), clinical trials are of paramount importance. Here, the current status of drug development in CF is discussed and future directions highlighted. Methods for pre-clinical testing of drugs with potential activity in CF patients including relevant animal models are described. Study design options for phase II and phase III studies involving CF patients are provided, including required patient numbers, safety issues and surrogate end point parameters for drugs, tested for different disease manifestations. Finally, regulatory issues for licensing new therapies for CF patients are discussed, including new directives of the European Union and the structure of a European clinical trial network for clinical studies involving CF patients is proposed.

PLUMED 2: New feathers for an old bird

Enhancing sampling and analyzing simulations are central issues in molecular simulation. Recently, we introduced PLUMED, an open-source plug-in that provides some of the most popular molecular dynamics (MD) codes with implementations of a variety of different enhanced sampling algorithms and collective variables (CVs). The rapid changes in this field, in particular new directions in enhanced sampling and dimensionality reduction together with new hardware, require a code that is more flexible and more efficient. We therefore present PLUMED 2 here a,complete rewrite of the code in an object-oriented programming language (C++). This new version introduces greater flexibility and greater modularity, which both extends its core capabilities and makes it far easier to add new methods and CVs. It also has a simpler interface with the MD engines and provides a single software library containing both tools and core facilities. Ultimately, the new code better serves the ever-growing community of users and contributors in coping with the new challenges arising in the field.

Program summary

Program title: PLUMED 2

Catalogue identifier: AEEE_v2_0

Program summary URL: http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEEE_v2_0.html

Program obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. Ireland

Licensing provisions: Yes

No. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 700646

No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 6618136

Distribution format: tar.gz

Programming language: ANSI-C++.

Computer: Any computer capable of running an executable produced by a C++ compiler.

Operating system: Linux operating system, Unix OSs.

Has the code been vectorized or parallelized?: Yes, parallelized using MPI.

RAM: Depends on the number of atoms, the method chosen and the collective variables used.

Classification: 3, 7.7, 23. Catalogue identifier of previous version: AEEE_v1_0.

Journal reference of previous version: Comput. Phys. Comm. 180 (2009) 1961.

External routines: GNU libmatheval, Lapack, Bias, MPI. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Improving Bandwidth Efficiency in E-band Communication Systems

The allocation of a large amount of bandwidth by regulating bodies in the 70/80 GHz band, i.e., the E-band, has opened up new potentials and challenges for providing affordable and reliable Gigabit per second wireless point-to-point links. This article first reviews the available bandwidth and licensing regulations in the E-band. Subsequently, different propagation models, e.g., the ITU-R and Cane models, are compared against measurement results and it is concluded that to meet specific availability requirements, E-band wireless systems may need to be designed with larger fade margins compared to microwave systems. A similar comparison is carried out between measurements and models for oscillator phase noise. It is confirmed that phase noise characteristics, that are neglected by the models used for narrowband systems, need to be taken into account for the wideband systems deployed in the E-band. Next, a new multi-input multi-output (MIMO) transceiver design, termed continuous aperture phased (CAP)-MIMO, is presented. Simulations show that CAP-MIMO enables E-band systems to achieve fiber-optic like throughputs. Finally, it is argued that full-duplex relaying can be used to greatly enhance the coverage of E-band systems without sacrificing throughput, thus, facilitating their application in establishing the backhaul of heterogeneous networks.

A self-learning teaching-learning based optimization for dynamic economic/environmental dispatch considering multiple plug-in electric vehicle loads

Economic and environmental load dispatch aims to determine the amount of electricity generated from power plants to meet load demand while minimizing fossil fuel costs and air pollution emissions subject to operational and licensing requirements. These two scheduling problems are commonly formulated with non-smooth cost functions respectively considering various effects and constraints, such as the valve point effect, power balance and ramp rate limits. The expected increase in plug-in electric vehicles is likely to see a significant impact on the power system due to high charging power consumption and significant uncertainty in charging times. In this paper, multiple electric vehicle charging profiles are comparatively integrated into a 24-hour load demand in an economic and environment dispatch model. Self-learning teaching-learning based optimization (TLBO) is employed to solve the non-convex non-linear dispatch problems. Numerical results on well-known benchmark functions, as well as test systems with different scales of generation units show the significance of the new scheduling method.

Oil and Dependency::The Case of Kazakhstan

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the newly independent oil-rich country of Kazakhstan has become a major recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI). Although international organisations such as the IMF and UNCTAD have claimed that FDI could be considered an engine in the transition from state socialism and as a powerful force for integration of this region into the global economy; this investment also poses significant risks to Kazakhstan. These risks fall into two broad categories: The first category can be broadly described as issues associated with the “resource curse” or the “Dutch Disease”. The term Dutch Disease describes a situation where booming demand in oil exporting countries, due to high oil revenues, leads to shift of an economy’s productive resources from the tradeable sector to the non-tradeable sector. The second category is associated with the over-dependency of oil exporting countries on a relatively small number of large multinational corporations (MNCs). This over-dependency can lead to a situation where licenses and concessions are granted at less favourable conditions than if they were auctioned in an efficient market. Examining the licensing policy of the Kazakhstani Energy and Mineral Resource Ministry, this paper notes that the latter issue of over-dependency has become less of a risk due to deliberate efforts to diversify investment relationships. Notwithstanding this situation there is some evidence that it remains difficult for oil exporting nations such as Kazakhstan to ensure that oil revenues are channelled into sustainable economic development.

Protocol-driven adjustment of ocular hypotensive medication in patients at low risk of conversion to glaucoma

AIM: To investigate the safety and potential savings of decreasing medication use in low-risk patients with ocular hypertension (OH).
METHODS: Patients with OH receiving pressure-lowering medication identified by medical record review at a university hospital underwent examination by a glaucoma specialist with assessment of visual field (VF), vertical cup-to-disc ratio (vCDR), central corneal thickness and intraocular pressure (IOP). Subjects with estimated 5-year risk of glaucoma conversion <15% were asked to discontinue ≥1 medication, IOP was remeasured 1 month later and risk was re-evaluated at 1 year.
RESULTS: Among 212 eyes of 126 patients, 44 (20.8%) had 5-year risk >15% and 14 (6.6%) had unreliable baseline VF. At 1 month, 15 patients (29 eyes, 13.7%) defaulted follow-up or refused to discontinue medication and 11 eyes (5.2%) had risk >15%. The remaining 69 patients (107 eyes, 50.7%) successfully discontinued 141 medications and completed 1-year follow-up. Mean IOP (20.5±2.65 mm Hg vs 20.3±3.40, p=0.397) did not change, though mean VF pattern SD (1.58±0.41 dB vs 1.75±0.56 dB, p=0.001) and glaucoma conversion risk (7.31±3.74% vs 8.76±6.28%, p=0.001) increased at 1 year. Mean defect decreased (-1.42±1.60 vs -1.07±1.52, p=0.022). One eye (0.47%) developed a repeatable VF defect and 13 eyes (6.1%) had 5-year risk >15% at 1 year. The total 1-year cost of medications saved was US$4596.
CONCLUSIONS: Nearly half (43.9%) of low-risk OH eyes in this setting could safely reduce medications over 1 year, realising substantial savings.Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Commentary on Henrician Proclamation 1538:A Proclamation Prohibiting Unlicensed Printing of Scripture (1538)

Royal Proclamation prohibiting the printing and publishing of ecclesiastical and other books without prior licence, as well as the importation, sale and publication of English language texts printed on the continent. This Proclamation established the precedent for the pre-publication licensing of literary works in England.
The commentary describes the background to the Proclamation, in particular the significance of the English Reformation, and Henry VIII's increasing interest in regulating and censuring the press. The commentary suggests that while this early instance of press intervention influenced governmental attitudes to censorship throughout the next 150 years, one of the crucial differences between this and later models of ideological control was that the 1538 Proclamation sought to censure print materials in a manner that was decoupled from the economic ownership and exploitation of such works.

Commentary on the Stationers' Royal Charter 1557

Royal Charter providing the Company of Stationers with corporate legal status within the City of London, and conferring on them exclusive control over printing within England. The grant of the Charter ensured that the Company's licensing procedures became the standard by which members of the book trade secured the right to print and publish literary works, giving rise to what is generally referred to as ‘stationers' copyright'.
The grant of the Charter by Mary is often understood as the point at which the monarchy established an effective regulatory institution to control and censure the press, in the guise of the Stationers' Company, in exchange for an absolute monopoly over the production of printed works. In fact, the commentary suggests that censorship of the press throughout the Tudor period remained an essentially ad hoc and reactive phenomenon, and that both Mary and Elizabeth relied, not primarily upon the Company of Stationers, but on the use of statutory instruments and royal proclamations to censure heretical and treasonous texts.

Commentary on the Elizabethan Injunctions 1559

Royal Proclamation setting out the manner in which the Elizabethan Church was to be reformed and governed. Injunction 51 of this Proclamation continued in the tradition of Henry VIII's 1538 Proclamation in providing the legal foundation for a system of pre-publication licensing in Elizabethan England.
The commentary describes how, in accordance with the Injunctions, the licensing and censorship of the press was to be carried out, not by the Stationers' Company, but by the Privy Council and Elizabeth's newly established Ecclesiastical Commission (the High Commission). It also details how Elizabeth also continued to rely upon the sporadic use of statutory measures and royal proclamations to respond to seditious or heretical texts. Moreover, it suggests that, in practice, the extent to which the Elizabethan press was subject to regulatory control was much less draconian than has usually been suggested.

Commentary on Star Chamber Decree 1637

A decree of the Star Chamber designed to regulate the printing of all literary works, whether ecclesiastical or secular in nature. The decree further entrenched the significance and validity of ‘stationers' copyright' in requiring that no work be printed without first being entered on the Company of Stationers' Register Book. The decree also provided that any materials printed thereafter were to carry both the name of the printer and the author of the work.
The commentary describes how, by comparison with earlier decrees (see: uk_1566; uk_1586), the 1637 Decree provided a more elaborate system for licensing both ecclesiastical and secular works as well as a more comprehensive set of regulations to govern the operation of the printing trade. As a regulatory measure, it is widely regarded as representing the high point of the Company of Stationers' control and authority over the book trade.