Search results

The relative information content of titles of research papers in different subject areas has been examined by counting the number of their ‘substantive’ words in eleven English periodicals, two French and two German. Chemistry and botany (in which KWIC indexes are already produced) are found to have the highest values, followed by physics, medicine, history, and the social sciences, with philosophy lowest. The information content of the foreign titles when translated into English was almost equal to that of English titles in the same subjects. Most subjects showed a significant increase in the number of substantive words between 1947 and 1973. Some difficulties of searching by title due to the vocabularies of non‐scientific subjects are discussed.

As the Dutch East India Company expanded its presence in Asia during the seventeenth century, discovery of new products and medical materials was central to its continued success and survival. This new product innovation was difficult to manage directly however because the routine-driven, efficiency-focused organization was ill-suited to research and discovery required for bioprospecting and innovation. Instead, the Company tacitly allowed its employees in Asia to conduct this research on their own. Scientists became free riders, exploiting their administrative authority and corporate resources to further their private research projects. This symbiotic public–private partnership enabled employees to use Company resources to undertake large-scale economic and scientific surveys of its Asian domains. These decentralized, entrepreneurial projects cut across the boundaries of caste, language, religion, and theoretical orientation to assemble new, systematic views of Asian knowledge. While not centrally planned (nor always officially condoned), these surveying efforts had all of the hallmarks of a systematic colonial project to map out the sources of value in foreign colonies.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the α‐amylase and α‐glucosidase inhibitory properties of grains of some red and white varieties of rice from India.

Methanolic extracts of different rice varieties were analyzed for their α‐amylase and α‐glucosidase inhibitory properties. Total phenol and total anthocyanin contents were measured.

The white varieties of rice grains showed weak α‐glucosidase inhibitory activity and no α‐amylase inhibitory activity. The red varieties of rice grains showed good α‐glucosidase and α‐amylase inhibitory activities. The activities in these red varieties of rice, as determined by the IC₅₀ values, were found to be correlated to total anthocyanin content. α‐glucosidase inhibitory activity of cyanidin‐3‐glucoside, the anthocyanin reported from rice grains was studied. But the IC₅₀ values of different red varieties of rice were much less than that of cyanidin‐3‐glucoside indicating higher activity of red rice grain extracts than the purified pigment. This might be due to synergistic activity with other components present in rice extract.

The report shows hypoglycaemic potential of red varieties of rice grains.

There are over fifty Faculty, Departmental, and Special Libraries in the University of Cambridge and, as may be imagined, the functions of these libraries vary greatly. There are roughly speaking three main types. The main purpose of the first group is to make books available to undergraduates who are reading for Tripos and other examinations, while that of the second group is to supply the needs of the teaching staff and of research. The third group of libraries caters for the needs of the teaching staff, of research students, and of examination students. It must be borne in mind that this grouping is purely arbitrary, and the reader will find that scientific libraries are in many cases seeking to cater for undergraduates as well as for those engaged in research.

The purpose of this paper is to measure the environmental changes, which took place in the study area Musawarat ElSufra and the authors try to find the causes of these changes and establish a comparison of the present and past vegetation of the area.

Present vegetation was investigated using fresh plant materials for pollen analysis. Fossils were taken from the hafir (basin) to study the fossil pollen grains at different soil depths. Soil surface samples were taken to analyze the chemical and physical properties of the soil.

The pollen analysis of the samples taken from the hafir (basin) of Musawarat reveals that there are 21 species belonging to 16 families. The dominant families were Cyperaceae, Commelinaceae, Mimosaceae and Amaranthaceae.

Comparison of past and present vegetation reveal the causes of environmental change and insure sustainable development in arid region.

Discusses the influence of cereal breeding on yield increase. Suggests that future breeding programmes should be based on both financial information and yield. Summarizes the results of a first attempt to include financial and yield data for the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) leaflet Recommended Varieties of Cereals. Discusses implications for breeders and farmers. Suggests that evaluation by financial margins will be the criterion of greatest importance in a future agricultural environment dictated by a movement of cereal prices towards world levels under present common agricultural policy.

SOME popular journals have, for some time now, been publishing a short list of books which are selling successfully. Books and Bookmen has a feature of the best‐selling titles from two or three bookshops in town and the provinces; Time and Tide publishes a list compiled with the assistance of the National Book League: Time in its “Time Listings” enumerates the top twenty best sellers (of America) and similar lists no doubt appear in other journals. The outstanding characteristic of these lists is the remarkably high quality of the books mentioned. Rare indeed is a title which would not deserve a place on the shelves on any public library. Most of the titles are, of course, new, although it is interesting to note how really outstanding titles retain a place on the lists for many weeks. Thus in the last “Time Listing”, Dr. Zhivago, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Aku Aku among others, have all been published for some months.

Outlines the variety of interests of William Roscoe, a successful (until 1816) banker in Liverpool, from botany to poetry, and concentrates on his book collecting. Describes the contents of the library he established at Allerton Hall, Liverpool, and their influence on his own studies and writings. His contributions to the intellectual and civic development of Liverpool prior to its rapid commercial expansion in the nineteenth century are described and the fate of his art and book collections, and the extent of their survival in Liverpool itself, despite the dispersal of most of his library, following his bankruptcy in 1816 are indicated. The nature and extent of his legacy, especially in Liverpool itself, is discussed.