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This paper aims to describe an information model, the Canonical Robot Command Language (CRCL), which provides a high-level description of robot tasks and associated control and status information.

A common representation of tasks was used that is understood by all of the resources required for the job: robots, tooling, sensors and people.

Using CRCL, a manufacturer can quickly develop robotic applications that meet customer demands for short turnaround, enable portability across a range of vendor equipment and maintain investments in application development through reuse.

Industrial robots can perform motion with sub-millimeter repeatability when programmed using the teach-and-playback method. While effective, this method requires significant up-front time, tying up the robot and a person during the teaching phase.

We have observed in the reports of those engaged in the administration of the Acts several references to the practice of milking so that a portion of the milk is left in the udder of the cow, this portion being removed subsequently and not included in the milk sent out to customers. The inspector for the southern division of the county of Northampton reports that on a sample of milk being found deficient in fat to the extent of 17 per cent., a further sample was taken at the time of milking when a milkman was found to be not properly “stripping” the cows. He was warned. The analyst for the county of Notts writes: “The first strippings obtained before the milk glands have been normally excited by the milking are very low in fat yet are “genuine” milk in the sense that nothing has been added to or taken from it. It is nonsense to talk of genuine milk in the sense that everything that comes from the udder of the cow is to be taken as genuine milk fit for sale.” In a case tried before the Recorder of Middlesbrough, one witness said that among some farmers it was a common practice not to “strip” cows until after the milk was sent away.

One of the fastest growing areas of microcomputer applications is that of expert systems. Within the domain of expert systems neural networking technology is also making a strong contribution. Personnel officers have to give advice to management and this is usually based on a good deal of experience. Expert systems represent a way of passing on this knowledge to less experienced colleagues so that they too can make suitable decisions if the more experienced staff are not available. Sometimes expert systems can surprise the experts who provided information to help build the systems. This article looks at a neural networking shell that can be trained to emulate an expert system. Its simplicity of operation and user friendliness is a striking feature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the investment characteristics of works by leading Australian artists.

About 35,805 paintings by 45 leading Australian artists sold at auction are used to construct individual hedonic price indices. The attributes included in each artist's hedonic regression model include the size and medium of the painting and the auction house and year sold.

The indexes show that average annual returns across all artists range between 4 and 15 per cent with a mean of 8 per cent, with the highest returns for works by Brett Whiteley, Jeffrey Smart, Cecil Brack and Margaret Olley. Risk‐adjusted returns are generally lower, with reward‐to‐volatility and reward‐to‐variability ratios averaging 1.5 and 5.8 per cent, respectively. The portfolio βs for individual artistic works average 0.41. The willingness‐to‐pay for perceived attributes in the artwork show that works executed in oils and gouache, and those auctioned by Deutscher‐Menzies, Sotheby's and Christies are generally associated with higher prices.

The returns on a buy‐and‐hold strategy in the Australian art market are at least comparable to the Australian stock market. While total risk is greater, the very low market risk found in almost all artistic portfolios is suggestive of the possible benefits of portfolio diversification through art investment. Moreover, a number of artist's works offer very superior market and non‐market risk‐adjusted performance.

This is the first Australian study to construct measures of risk, return, β and Sharpe and Treynor ratios for individual Australian artists.

According to The Times, prompt action is likely to be taken by the Government to deal with the danger to the public health due to the consumption of contaminated, or essentially impure, milk. At present the authorities are faced with a serious difficulty, owing to the absence on active service of so many officials concerned with the administration of the law relating to these matters the release of whom was strongly urged in The Times recently. It was owing to the inroads made on the staffs of the central authority and the local administrations that the Milk and Dairies (Consolidation) Act of 1915 was not put into force. As soon as a sufficient number of officials are released by demobilization, and special steps are being taken to get this done, the administrative Orders under the Act will be put into force. A similar state of things exists in regard to the Tuberculosis Order of the Board of Agriculture which, among other objects, aims at the elimination of tuberculous cows from dairy herds. With both measures in effective administration very great progress in the removal of a national danger should be almost immediately made.

The foundation collection of the printed books now forming the Library of the British Museum was that of Sir Hans Sloane. This comprised about 40,000 volumes. To it was added in 1759 the Royal collection, begun in the time of Henry VII and inherited by George II from his predecessors on the throne.

WE have now to regard Indexing from quite another standpoint. Hitherto we have been assuming it to be undertaken from a co‐operative point of view, as in the case of Poole's Index and also in that of the Review of Reviews. In special work, the greater the magnitude of the task, as in the instance of Science as a whole, and any large divisions of Science, the more likely is co‐operative effort to be required, but speaking generally special indexes are largely the result of individual effort. It is here that that discrepancy in execution, allusion to which has been made earlier, becomes so manifest. It is my principal object to show how these contradictory methods, the natural result of several minds working on no fixed or settled plan, may be avoided. No space, therefore, will be wasted on detailing these inconsistencies, for the reader's and student's interests will be better served by the more positive method of pointing out how to index on a fixed and settled system. As in the previous section practical illustrations will appear later on to demonstrate this.

The Pure Food and Health Society of Great Britain held a conference at the Inns of Court Hotel, Holborn, on May 27. Mr. H. E. MORGAN presided, supported by LORD CAMOYS and Mr. S. F. EDGE. The principal objects of the conference were to discuss (1) the best methods of preventing food frauds and substitutions that are injurious to consumer and honest manufacturer alike; (2) some means of educating the public, preferably by advertisement, so that they can discriminate genuine and good from inferior, worthless, and fraudulent articles.