Faster than the speed of flight: Plus latest research: Bloodhound Supersonic Car Satellite Training Mobile Commerce World Hi-Tech Forum: Transaction Scheduling Focus UAE

China Goes Global eCall: Smart Cars to Save Lives?

Arts round-up: Exhibitions & Book Reviews 0 0 . 3 €

0 5 . 2 £ Issue 6 - Spring 2011 eBritain Magazine is published by the British Institute of Technology & E-commerce Avicenna House, 258-262 Romford Road, London E7 9HZ, United Kingdom eBritain Spring 2011 6

e u s s I

Dr Peter Robinson Editor, BITE

Associate Editors: Dr Mutsuhiro Arinobu Supercharged Toshiba

Prof. Gilles Richard University of Toulouse 21st century Dr Ognjen Arandjelovic University of Cambridge solutions Dr Birgitte Andersen Birkbeck College University of London s the financial crisis deepens the cutbacks in technological research could have long-reach - ing effects on the UK's leading role in many areas. The BBC reported that the UK science Prof Jiang Yu Abudget has been frozen in cash terms which amounts to a fall of around 10% over four University of Cambridge years. For example under cuts proposed by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Royal Society Program Council (BBSRC), around 30 neuroscience research groups are expected to be wound up. Dr Toshitaka Tsuda Fujitsu Laboratories ltd We all know that we have been lumbered with the results of mismanagement in the financial sec - tor and government failure to sufficiently regulate the industry. But the brightest element on the Prof Katsumi Inoue horizon is our technological prowess and the knowledge economy. Our universities, science parks National Institute of Informatics and technology-based businesses are respected worldwide.

Dr Melvyn A Sydney-Smith In these pages we report on the UK's holding of the land speed record and our bid to go for a KGSJ, Adjunct Professor record breaking 1,000 mph. Richard Noble OBE, the project director of Bloodhound outlined at our (Nutrition Medicine), Australia World Hi Tech Forum at The Dorchester how, through the internet, this project is inspiring school Dr Pervez Mustajab children and could influence many to go into engineering. It was one of the most inspiring speech - Aligarh Muslim University es at the Forum and I realised how apposite the title of that speech was "21st Century Solution: Supercharged education for our Industries." That is exactly what we need. Prof Des Mapps University of Plymouth Looking around at the exhibits at the Science Museum in the "Making the Modern World" hall dur - ing our Forum gala dinner that evening, with everything from Stephenson's Rocket to modern aero - Professor K. David Young planes on display, I was struck by the range of technological innovation of the past and how we are The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology clearly continuing in that vein today. Ideas and their fulfilment in technological terms is something we are good at and can benefit all areas of society in terms of jobs and creating efficiencies. It Nick Richards would be disastrous to lose those benefits due to the activities of a few unscrupulous bankers. Production Design

Dr M Farmer Editor-In-Chief

3

research ats & leisure features & articles C 6 5 3 4 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 4 4 0 5 1 4 4 4 5 0 6 8 8 4 0 1 8 0 4 2 8 2 5 4 4 1 6 0 3 2 0

------

A A C F T e T B E A C C G E U M S B W C C V Y J M M D G D D C D G W D M A D R D D C a i h h

i m v u

e d a h o n l o r

l r r r o r r i a r r a r e n o a a o c S S o r e c J o o m

a e e e d z a s o v i i t o m n A r t Y J L M P P o r r t a b h a r p s t n v o s t b

s h

a l r t i o l i o a u l u o k e u

a a a l i n o

i U I a y e e l o i l e y m w d a d u a a n D s n a n m P : l r o n n k y

e d w n d n a r c t w t e

r

. R

i h h l n g w

m e e n o d

a d u S B C e y u c l A G a

s

H a n y J y i

p r

J a

, P I o a r r e

C A e r - l n r e e i o n a a

S L

m n t

l l o . a

N i d o n u d m e a a J G o u o u o l E a v ’ - i R R

n e r r l u v

o

s s c m c p T s e Q u a g ,

r o D a d f e P i r u n n c s . i m o

i G S W e a o o m o

e t

s e

s t

e A r

b r i t C e a d t d

r l o R i t o n v T t p t b b l n w i i o t c T o

a E r

s h a n d l a h i b n v m e

d

f

i G e n r n a e e h i i a A e e h s r o n

d h C P f n n e

e w

s l a g i e r

t g e r l a t

& r

m a a s

v e l i k

h t n s s O i

a e p : s h N g r h d a k p , s o n i F F

U n h n

a t t

w r o o o e n s w H c o i e , i m H r e e a u h

i M D B d a b c v o a n

d s

o n P n n s

j

a g r e

P L n a

u t i a i e n e e s e a a r a E r

W t r a g t s a G a p n

d r l t s s Y m

h r o d n u r r p p s c t o l n a e

c e M

r z g o

,

e a o S

t a l

o

r d t e e w

m t

D y o y t c e t & h o e

S u a A e f r C n

k e

i R t n e r

e n o r e n S l o

b F u e d o v m

H e

k u t w c y

h E d c W r

e 2

x

t e s n v a a r a r x

b t h q i s N h a a R e u a n a s 0 h i W a

n i a l r v a

e n a c u : - e l f s n n

r S m r A a y e 1 e e e g k o l g

e m S t e t a g s e c s o t C o H s p a s 0

v r c h e e r

e

H

a g

n s h

g

e i l s L

T l h r : i o t o h é a m r

n i E i o r a e t t r h

v c L t i a s é y e c , o i n i A u l n F e o e e s l

b o c v g w è i e e h l r

l i

c o n M n

r

d l w d è s o l n b W o n o e n

m y d - l e t

h

g l e

n

i a n c S u a - i u y

i o H s e n

t t x a n

n

n s T a a e u o h u t e e n l t

a ? f M

u i o n w a é g i

s o S g t

o M n w s e l

n

n d e t d B c r k m l M T

t r a r a

a l è

h

s e C

d g

a

e a U h o r a r t S r r g D t G n a o i i : n y h a u d

n k

h l s g n c A

i o a i e u , u c e p n

i C a r s s e e e n

d i

n W E u

i p e r S e v C g , f p l c

c M

a o i l

o i d C o e e c a e s e e

p l i n r i y u o r y C n s n e f r l a

r

l t i o l d m

g c r R o a s o u y s c f g u C

t n e i a

M e a n i a u s p e i e r

D s n h r s r i

O

u p r d l m a l c e p l d g i

y t y o l e n f

e s l n r d h h

i D - n e o a u n b T

l r o n a k G i e a o u c i n t m t m o s n t s t a e r i

i i c a o l n i

e g g l c e e n e

a n s D r s

l y

l S P e s i s e

r r t y c i r n i t b o c u i r p t l e e d s

S o y f s t e m

0 5 4 2 1 6 6 3 8 0

- - - - -

B M R C W l e h o o o s i b r o n t l i a d d a l e u

h G H

r o T a i o e u - n T e c n t e s h

d R c

n

G h P e o l

v r o l F o o i b e o g j e a w r y u c l : m t

L e : a

B m F r o b i c t

I u a n s n i

n , U

B A S u E p r f o r r i d n g

2 0 5 1 1 features eBritain Spring 2011

Faster than the speed of flight Richard Noble OBE, Project Director of the Bloodhound project, which aims to top 1,000 mph next year

Whether you drive a Bugatti or a Toyota you most probably had a few moments of excitement when you and the car were travelling fast; you may have wondered just how fast a car could be persuaded to go and what it might be like to drive really fast. It’s happened to most people and it hap - pened to Compte Chasseloup Laubat in 1898; he went on to establish the first world land speed record at 39mph/ 62kph on a Paris road. The performance was actually a disappointment because the bicycling record was faster but you have to start somewhere.

Shortly after the World Land Speed Record took hold as an incredible international competition requiring extreme design inno - vation and courage from the drivers. In the 1920’s the cars were travelling faster than current fighter aircraft and the drivers were elevated to the status of the 1960’s astro - nauts. The power requirement varies as the cube of the speed and the run site requires a smoothness and length that could only be found on beaches and dried desert lakes, so the cars required aero engines and tyres that would somehow hold together as vehi - cle and wheel rotational speeds increased driven by intense international competition. There was very little in the way of instru - mentation and so the drivers were taking huge risk driving their cars into the unknown and rightfully claiming the glory for great personal accomplishment. By 1947 the record had been raised to 394mph and then 403mph in 1964. This signalled the peak of British wheel driven achievement and for a while the British lost interest as the Americans introduced jet and rocket cars which cost less to create and could accelerate four times faster. The American influence took the record to 622mph by 1970 but with the moon land - ings now drawing the global attention, there tion and so it wasn’t until that evening cele - ished and there was a shortage of interna - it stuck. It seemed very much a side show brations when the limited data finally tional derring do and challenge. The point when compared with NASA’s monumental emerged – it showed the car was within had been well and truly made – the World achievements. 7mph of involuntary flight and with a power Land Speed was within an ace of the speed to weight ratio greater than of any jet fight - of sound- and this was a high technology It took the Thrust 2 team 6 years to recov - er the potential control less flight would World First what ought to be challenged. er the World Land Speed Record for Britain have made very spectacular media Three teams took up the challenge- the in 1983. The Thrust2 programme started footage. But one factor was clear - Thrust 2 McLaren Formula1 team had the money, from just £175 and using a 30 year old was almost unique among land speed the Spirit of American team had money and Rolls-Royce Avon 302 engine and after - record projects in achieving its design reputation, the ThrustSSC team (SSC = burner from a BAC Lightning Mach 2 fight - speed of 650mph. supersonic car) had no money but they had er the record was raised marginally to the aerodynamicist. The ThrustSSC project 633mph with the car peaking at Mach 0.84. But there was something about the Thrust2 advanced through its research phase using Again there was only primitive instrumenta - effort which generated enormous global for the first time CFD to evaluate the tran - media coverage; the moon shots had fin - sonic aerodynamic performance and then

6 features eBritain Spring 2011

confirming it with rocket model testing on units from an F4 Phantom made 5 super - the size of 2010 Formula 1 team. The other the long test track at Pendine S Wales. By sonic passes, eventually including the key point was that for the first time it was good fortune an almost perfect correlation mandatory two supersonic passes within possible to get quality performance data between the rocket test and the CFD the hour, to gain the current World Record from the car – thus enabling engineering results emerged, thus calibrating the CFD at 763.035mph Mach 1.02, driven by the prediction and protection for the driver. The and proving the validity of the ThrustSSC very brave Andy Green RAF. Land speed record driver was still taking car design. The huge achievement should high personal risk but that risk was reduced have led to considerable industrial support by the ready availability of quality data. The

from Britain’s large corporate community, The ThrustSSC record was famous for its land speed record driver was no longer but because of scepticism and culture World First, but there were other great driving into the unknown and hoping to change it never happened – and the 15 achievements. Prior to the web, sponsors make it through by personal endeavour person team had to finance its efforts from could only judge the public reaction to a alone. The Land Speed Record had its 5,000 supporters and the web. And for sponsored event by media coverage levels. become much more interesting and much the first time the web interest was able to But there was a flaw: there was no way in safer. disprove the British media’s chronic and which the sponsors could be sure how the long held belief that the public had no inter - individual consumer actually reacted to all In 2005 it looked as though the Americans est in high technology. The McLaren project the exposure. With the internet this now were to mount a challenge to the British never made it into the build and the Spirit of became possible and the huge global inter - record and it was decided to build one America turned on its side at Mach 0.9 est became apparent when the ThrustSSC more car – to be the very best ever. The when the trailing shocks lifted the tail and a website peaked at 17 million pages a day, chosen power was to come from a combi - crosswind did the rest. The Thrust SSC 59 million visits in the year (equivalent to nation of jet and rocket, enabling fine powered by two Rolls-Royce Spey 202 300 million pages) which made it 30 times adjustment of thrust together with minimal

7 features eBritain Spring 2011

jet intake area. A key moment came when had poor skills and could not replace the past. Because there was no media promo - Green and Noble approached Lord 40-60 range so consequently a vast num - tion of engineering and not much in the Drayson Minister for Defence Equipment ber of apprentices would be required way of spectacular engineering taking and Support. The idea was to encourage immediately. A study of the Apollo effect of place in Britain the unfortunate STEM the minister to make an early the 1962-72 manned space programme teachers were having a hard time exciting EJ200Eurofighter engine available. The showed that the US PHDs conferred had their classrooms about science and engi - suggestion was received badly and the spectacularly increased from 12,000 a year neering. The whole country was losing its meeting was decaying to a close when the in 1962 to 30,000 in 1972. The curve coin - ability to design and manufacture. When Minister made an unexpected request. He cided with the NASA manned space pro - the financial crash of 2008 came it became explained that the Ministry of Defence’s gram thus suggesting that a high technolo - quite clear that the bloated financial servic - main problem was the shortage of engi - gy project could deliver cultural change. es industry had blown its credibility and that neers –and he had a radical solution. But the project would have to iconic - air - the country would have to return to design

Remembering the fanatical interest among craft and space travel was out due to high engineering and manufacturing. But the schoolchildren in the frantic development costs and certification requirements – so it country was only producing round 24,000 of prototype military aircraft during the Cold would have to be another car. graduate engineers a year - 30% of whom War, he asked Noble and Green to create were diverted into banking financial an iconic project and run it through all the The shortage of engineers seemed to be Services and the BBC. schools. Hoping this would lead to the something of a British problem – for years EJ200 Noble and Green eagerly accepted. the UK media had been concentrating on The key to the whole Bloodhound concept its own territory, music drama and televi - was the FIA land speed record design rules The education research threw up fascinat - sion stars and neglecting engineering. which in an effort to encourage unlimited ing facts – the Leitch Report of 2005 There was thus limited encouragement for racing and avoid liability from prescriptive showed that the UK skilled workforce was school children and it didn’t help that the design restriction resulted in minimal primarily in the 40-60 age range and that in then current culture was promoting a post design rules – simply that the car must the next 20 years 60% would be lost industrial economy where engineering and have four or more wheels and be controlled through retirement. The 25-40 age range manufacture had been consigned to the by the driver. Because all land speed

8 features eBritain Spring 2011

record have to be innovative to achieve 1050mph. Since ThrustSSC had peaked at part in the programme. The objective is to ultimate performance, the lack of tight Mach 1.03 there was the small matter of a undertake first runs on a runway in the UK design rules means that all competiotor Mach 0.37 increment to tackle. Each in Q1 2012 and then high speed runs on cars are substantially different. This being design iteration became a nightmare, the Hakskeen Pan in South Africa where the case then all the project technology can requiring the car to be designed to a fine desert preparations are already underway. be made available without fear of aiding a tolerance before the CFD could be initiat - competitor for the simple reason that the ed. The design had to go through three The projects education programme is competitor will have its own ideas – and years and 10 design iterations at a cost of developing strongly with 3,800 UK schools have no means of knowing whether import - £3m before with substantial help from the taking part – and this expected to increase ed experimental technology will work in a projects IT partner INTEL Corporation and to 7,000 schools by end 2011. Overseas its application. The new Bloodhound proj - Rolls-Royce plc a truly outstanding aero the project is proving popular with a further ect is making all its technology available design was achieved featuring neutral lift 440 schools taking part. Towards the end of 2010 INTEL Corporation plan to link up their global education programme SKOOOL with Bloodhound – thus taking Bloodhound to a further 6 million teachers. In the meantime the Bloodhound team have to recruit a further 600 education ambassadors in order to support the UK schools and in parallel develop a tailored e-learning process so that web followers can be brought up to education levels where they can interpret the data flowing from the cars 450 data channels when it starts to flow in Q1 2012.

As the project education develops it finds it is being driven by demand and a number of the UK engineering education acade - mies now wish to establish local Bloodhound centres. The project is responding by creating a franchise arrangement to enable to centres to have their own Bloodhound show cars and pre - sentations.

The next months of the project are likely to be the toughest as the build programme has to adher to a very strict plan in order to keep costs and delivery tightly under con - trol. The reciprocal part of the programme is the funding machinery which has to deliver the funds from sponsorship just in time in order to maintain financial pace with the build.

In short the entire project represents a new education process which is already stimu - lating education in UK and overseas. There is still a very long way to go – but it might just be that the World Land Speed record will have a very considerable future in education – to prove it all we have to live on the web as the project develops – from 0 to Mach 1.3. In parallel the projects achieve is the 1000mph record. this enabling legions of followers to under - 27,500lbs thrust hybrid rocket had to be stand how the project is progressing and in developed from scratch involving 10 devel - And there is one last point, the Bloodhound the process producing a new form of edu - opment firings to develop the catalyst pack SSC car will travel faster than a Eurofighter cation-education by stealth! But for the and define fuel grain regression. The Typhoon at the car’s operating level of classroom STEM teachers Bloodhound fullscale rocket was fired for the first time in 3,000ft. Land speed record cars will once provides what they have been looking for - November 2009. again travel faster than planes. a live high profile high technology with all the data made available live as the project At the time of writing the project is pro - develops. gressing to build with the target of achiev - See page 11 for Richard Noble’s WHTF speech ing rollout early next year. Three obselete and page 13 for his BITE "Championing of The Bloodhound project started informally EJ 200 engines with unused flight hours Technology" award. in 2007 and the gestation was particularly have been loaned by the Ministry of difficult. The design speed was set at Defence and 220 companies are taking

9 features eBritain Spring 2011

World Hi-Tech Forum: Focus UAE Dr Peter Robinson presents a précis of some of the key speeches at last year’s Forum held at The Dorchester

We face challenges in security and defence cleaning up after incidents have occurred. A lot here and overseas and those old distinctions of important work lies in developing resilience between foreign and home policy are breaking in everything on which the country depends. down since in counter terrorism all parts of the However, many services are in private hands globe are involved. In the UK we are facing and they must ensure resilience. financial stringency at the moment. Technology is neutral it is what you do with it that is impor - Intellectual development is an important part tant. Improperly used it can be oppressive and and we are supportive of the links between gov - intrusive to privacy, well used it can be liberat - ernment, the security industry and academic ing and unobtrusive. We are faced by a tech - institutions. Our intellectual innovation is ahead nology arms race with a skilled enemy of ter - of the game. But we need rationalised govern - rorists involved in asymmetric warfare. ment procurement and the security industry is Intelligence is a key element in our response fragmented. There could be greater consolida - and technology generates intelligence. You tion and partnerships with government creating can never win unless you know what is going a bigger approach. Government must also be a on around you whether in Afghanistan or ter - champion of small and medium sized compa - rorism at home. Technology leads to the devel - nies as this is where innovation often comes Baroness Neville-Jones opment of new techniques and becomes a driv - from. Minister of State for Security and Counter er for the tasks we have set ourselves. There Terrorism are new analytical tools, visualisations, com - International relationships like those with the plex information displayed more simply and we UAE and all of the GCC which this Forum rep - Security and Technology can be more effective in our responses. We resents are important. Public private partner - Technology can be an enabler for us in meeting have to constantly move on, technical innova - ships will continue in security as in defence. some of the most important security chal - tion does not stop, there is a permanent state of The Government and private industry must lenges. It is also important because the securi - change. develop long term relationships across the ty and defence industries are contributing to the world and particularly in the Gulf. Our education modernisation and expansion of the UK econo - We have to deploy technology for human secu - institutions are participating in this. We must my. The cyber and security industries are an rity, to protect our national infrastructure and to consolidate relationships such as the recent important means of seeking to close our vul - ensure business continuity. There must be nor - security partnership signed between the gov - nerabilities, defeat enemies and working with mality even when under attack, business as ernment and Kuwait covering shared objectives our allies. usual even in a crisis through well protected in fighting counterterrorism and crime. This backup systems. A good national security poli - Forum is a valuable tool in this process and our cy involves prevention and deterrent, not just hopes for the future.

and prevent further atrocities. Now CCTV pro - When using technology for these clandestine vides the earliest scientific evidence and recog - activities they try to conceal incriminating evi - nition which can deliver outstanding results. dence using trade craft. We have to rise to The 7/7 bombing trials saw graphic security these technological challenges. It is not just images of the terrorists involved in the bomb - about the numbers of police officers involved. ings demonstrate the value of CCTV. Our counter terrorism command hi tech unit has become a policing centre of excellence for Seizures of suspected terrorist personal com - forensic recovery and examination of computer puters is also an important area. Less than a storage and hard drives engaging in numerous decade ago just two constables in an office in partnerships domestically and internationally to Scotland Yard were involved. This quickly grew deliver community safety. In 2008 we set up a into a team of over 20 hi tech forensic examin - dedicated viewing unit, the first of its kind in the ers supplemented by 32 computer viewers. world, which is cataloguing all their findings and These teams are supported by the counter ter - these dedicated viewing techniques are now rorism unit which specialises in the internet and being exploited internationally. the telecommunications intelligence unit which analyses complex telephone data. When we Beyond terrorism, computer-based policing is seize a PC, lap top or smart phone we can go used against crime, credit and debit card fraud, through everything a terrorist suspect had passports fraud and compromised credit card Sir Paul Stephenson QPM downloaded, emailed, saved or generated. This numbers. International crime can now be Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has added a whole new dimension to our terror - orchestrated from a lap top in a teenagers bed - ist investigative practices. Storage capacity on room. Advances in technology will continue to Delivering Security PCs has become cheaper and grown from test our resilience and innovation. Advanced The opportunity to work with international part - around 340 megabytes in the nineties to 1.5 technology in the wrong hands presents a sig - ners to share our expertise in security is invalu - terabytes. Terrorists use computers for posting nificant threat and we must use technology to able since terrorists have increasingly complex inflammatory propaganda promoting acts of gain the advantage and deliver the security our capabilities. Anti-terrorism was mainly about extreme violence, planning attacks using inter - citizens deserve. sweeping up after bombings looking for traces net based mapping systems and raising funds. that would give us evidence to bring charges

10 features eBritain Spring 2011

change and change in behaviour is the internet, which changed America before the advent of the most powerful weapon we have ever had. the internet. We started with another car, an iconic car with the goal of a speed which would I specialise in high technology start-ups, and seem impossible, 1,000 miles an hour, a 30% we are probably best known for high speed increase on the existing record. In schools it thrust land speed record cars. These are just started grabbing the attention of teachers who one example of engineering excellence, creat - said that there had been no exciting projects to ing cars that accelerate faster than a jet fighter reference for their pupils. A new generation had using Rolls Royce engines. The land speed not been encouraged to enter engineering, the record in 1983 of 633 mph which we got back classroom has to compete with video games. from the Americans with my car, Thrust 2, has We found the sweet spot, a live project they come to symbolise the engineering challenge. could follow. While the space and defence We built the first ever supersonic car. The industry cannot give out their information, all power of the internet was demonstrated by the the data on this car is live as it happens. It is a 1997 project. About 250,000 gallons of fuel gigantic educational software game, an engi - were needed for this project and so we neering adventure with £3m in research and 3 Richard Noble OBE approached followers on the internet to buy it. years to get the car right. There have been 10 Our website has 300 million page views. In changes now we have the right design. 21st century solution: supercharged 1997 we took on the first supersonic car with education for our industries 763 mph hour recorded which has never been We have developed our own rocket motor, a This Forum is all about global partnering, diver - beaten. Eurofighter engine with a booster rocket motor. sification and structural change. In the UK we It has the equivalent output of a formula one car have been going through a serious recession The Ministry of Defence were having trouble just to drive the fuel pump. The project has a similar to many countries. We have seen that getting engineering graduates so they asked us huge public following, with 400 schools using the economic structure is wrong and we need to start an iconic engineering project and run it our lessons and followed in many other coun - to press the reset button just as the UAE has through the schools. They found that 25-40 tries. In December 2011 we will complete the been moving from dependency on oil to year olds do not have the engineering skills the car and in June 2012 will be in South Africa for embrace technology. To rebuild industries we UK needs. Engineering Phds in the US have the record attempt. We aim to undo the neglect need a fundamental change in our educational been growing and contributed to the success of in UK education in classrooms using the inter - system starting right at the bottom at primary the space programme then a huge IT industry net as the driver. schools. The primary agent for this rapid

programmes. We make sure academic ideas full spectrum of energy research delivered in get used through partnership so that there are partnership, internationally and nationally. Mem - genuine impacts in products, ideas and the arts. orandums of Understanding have been signed with China, India, Japan and Europe. We are We work with many companies including 2,500 working together on cleaner fuels, solar energy SMEs in the UK and international companies. and joint training. The delivery mechanisms in About 40% of this research takes place in uni - the UK by the Energy Research Centre is versities with partnerships with end users. Part - through Imperial College and Oxford University nership is the key to success and UK academia which fund a consortia of academic and busi - is good at translating research through to prod - ness partners. uct or making sure it is picked up by relevant users. A future emerging theme for the Council lies in reducing home energy consumption and de - David Delpy In the UK, energy is funded through an enor - mand. We must consider the problem of solving Chief Executive, Engineering and Physical mous number of agencies. The research coun - the social problem of changing people's behav - Sciences Research Council cils fund at the beginning and the hope is to iour and use of energy. It is a challenge to the pass over to other energy funding agencies later academic community to reduce energy con - Energy Research Programmes on and then companies and venture capitalists. sumption in the home. There is also speculative We are part of seven Research Councils rang - Hopefully there is seamless support from the work being carried out in considering energy op - ing from engineering to the arts and can tackle beginning to the end in the product, idea or pol - tions. We are involved in accelerating energy problems across the spectrum with a budget of icy change. We also help provide trained man - partnerships and using the deployment of energy £3 billion. The Physical Sciences Research power. technologies we already have. We are also en - Council has a budget of £800m a year for engi - suring more doctoral training with more Phds in neering and physical sciences. The Councils Energy funding has grown tremendously since the energy community and every Council is bring together major national and international 2002. The energy programme now supports the linked into this work.

11 features eBritain Spring 2011

those that can meet the region’s high expecta - opportunities in the region. Some large, private tions there are significant opportunities. developers are using advanced wastewater treatment technologies, and wastewater treat - The Middle East as a whole faces considerable ment and reuse is likely to be widely adopted in water and sanitation challenges, and the scale the region. and required pace of development mean that water is a key area that is receiving special The market is also seen as highly price sensi - focus from governments across the entire tive, with profit margins for low-tech products region. coming under increasing pressure according to market analysts Frost & Sullivan. Component There are a number of issues that provide suppliers face competition from low-cost prod - impetus for growth despite the weak global ucts from nations such as India and China. The economy. The area is characterised by acute report suggests that the onus is on technology water shortages exacerbated by the consider - providers to produce increasingly cost-effective Peter Ripley able challenges in providing adequate econom - products in challenging market conditions. Managing Director of ACWA Services ic signals to restrain water use (given that in a number of countries water is provided free of However, the potential benefits of success are The Middle East water sector charge). The statistics underline the challenge: considerable - the region is set to spend more Companies looking to do business in the water while the Middle East is home to 5% of the than $120 billion on water investments in this and sanitation sector in the Middle East are world’s population, it has just 1% of the world’s decade, which experts believe is required to undoubtedly joining the market at an interesting renewable fresh water. avoid severe water shortages by 2050. Water is point. While the market has been to an extent also vital to support tourism, and building proj - constrained by the economic downturn, the Environmental and health hazards surrounding ects also inevitably consume large quantities of background need for sustainable, intelligent the disposal of untreated effluent, marine pollu - water, placing further pressure on groundwater water and wastewater solutions means that for tion and deteriorating ground water quality are reserves and existing desalination capabilities. seen as not only key challenges but market

in particular. In recent years the more forward - exploit technology is often neglected. The thinking leaders and politicians have realised British Institute of Technology and E-commerce that the key to the long term future of countries has one of the largest MBA programmes in the like the UAE is not only oil but how well their UK and specialises in innovative Management country can embrace the challenges of educa - and leadership. This has proved to be a great tion. boost for countries who have engaged with our programmes and many of our graduates have It is well understood that all countries must be moved on to positions of great influence in their able to keep in touch with the latest technolo - home countries. gies and to have a University or higher educa - tion sector that is on a global level is a must for The education which produces the skills and the future development and prosperity of that aptitudes needed to produce goods and servic - country. The British Institute of Technology and es is required all over the world but especially E-commerce has a great track record of global in countries like the UAE. At the British Institute Professor Leslie Hobson OBE, partnerships which specialise in keeping in with of Technology and E-commerce we can carry Deputy Principal, British Institute of the latest innovations in technology and exploit - out a needs assessment of the existing educa - Technology and E-commerce ing them in ways best suited for the partner tion provision and install staff development pro - country. grammes to " Train the trainers " which has Technology and Education proven to be a great success in improving the Leadership and Management Education is vital provision of the right type of skills required by When one thinks of the United Arab Emirates , but creating the leaders and managers to various countries. one usually thinks of energy and oil resources

The 3rd World Hi-Tech Forum (WHTF) last welcomed around 300 delegates. Nicholas Owen Richard Noble’s Bloodhound project. See photo year focused on the UAE and was held at The the BBC journalist was MC of the event. highlights on facing page. Dorchester hotel, followed by the Gala dinner and Awards at the Science Museum in The themes of the role of the government; the This year the project management and team was London on October 14th 2010. innovation process; innovative manufacturing; experienced and streamlined. This ensured that transformation technologies, global partnering the WHTF was presented as a world-class event It was a resounding success and attracted the and the latest internet developments were logistically and organisationally. With more attention of chief executives, directors, covered. The thrust of the forum this year advanced forward planning and a ambassadors and parliamentarians. The Forum highlighted UK strengths in the Civil Nuclear, commercialisation strategy the WHTF is being concentrated on promoting British companies to Aerospace, Defence, Security, Automotive, Water reviewed to take on the global stage beyond a strengthen their relations with UAE and GCC and Finance sectors. There was a broad London-centric approach. In terms of responding countries, identifying new areas of cooperation spectrum of organizations and companies to the rapidly changing global economy the next and global partnership. The forum brought the UK representing both the public and especially the WHTF is envisaged to go global and have a and UAE business community together to private sectors inclusive of sponsors, strategic Globe trotting circuit which is responsive to facilitate technological and business partnerships. and media partners. requirements of focus countries.

The Minister of State for Security and Counter At the gala dinner in the evening at the Science The forthcoming WHTF will be built on building- Terrorism Baroness Neville-Jones highlighted the Museum, BBC television presenter Nick Ross block events planned for the BITE St.James's role of the World Hi-Tech Forum in promoting presided over awards to leading international seminars and Shrublands residential summits in global partnering and technology transfer. The companies including Khalaf Ahmed Al Habtoor 2011. Forum was opened by Lord Ahmed of chairman of the Al Habtoor Group; Tony Rotherham, chairman of the All-Party Weeresinghe of the London Stock Exchange and Moeen Yaseen Parliamentary group on Entrepreneurship and Head of Strategic Relations

12 features eBritain Spring 2011

WHTF Awards Ceremony at the Science Museum

from top, right column: "Championing of Technology" from top, left column: “Outstanding Award - Richard Noble, Bloodhound Business Leadership” Award - Supersonic Car Project, presented by: Khalaf Ahmed Al-Habtoor, presented by Ric Parker, Rolls-Royce Group Lord Ahmed "Security Innovation" Award - Dr. “The Most Innovative Trading Ali M. Al-Khouri - Emirates Identity System” Award - Tony Weeresinghe, Authority, presented by Naser Ziadeh, presented by Mike Woodward, KPMG Microsoft

"Promotion of Open Innovation, "Best MSc Dissertation" Award - Academic Research and Education" Evgenia Korsukova, presented by Award - Khalifa University of Science, Naser Ziadeh, Microsoft Technology and Research (KUSTAR), UAE, presented by Ivan Boyd, BT right: "Best MBA Dissertation" Award - Nivethitha Sivanandan, presented by Mike Woodward, KPMG

13 features eBritain Spring 2011

UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR: A few arguments for its existence

Mariana Gotseva

In the contemporary globalized world beings know. It is a fact that native speak - can take. But this does not happen by pro - English tends to be the main language for ers have tacit knowledge about their native viding ready-made rules for a child to incor - business communication, education and language grammar: i.e. they know how to porate them into his grammar. UG rather cultural collaboration. Hundreds of people combine words together to form sentences sets parameters which are fixed according of different age learn English in order to be and how to interpret sentences without any to the input a child receives. These rules successful in their endeavours. Therefore, formal learning. They also have the ability constrained on the child’s grammar are it might be interesting to know a few facts to judge sentences’ grammaticality. called “the core grammar or core rules” of about the nature of language acquisition his language (Ellis, 1985). Apart from them, and the theories behind the process of Language has been characterised by there are other rules which are not core acquiring and learning a language. Chomsky as “a perfect system which has and are not enforced by UG. They are optimal design” (Chomsky, 1998, 1999, called periphery rules. Cook (1985) defines This article focuses on Universal Grammar 2001, 2002) and which interfaces perfectly the periphery rules as ones either derived (UG) as formulated by Noam Chomsky and with humans’ speech and thought. The from the history of the language or bor - his followers, using the cognitive approach. grammar of a language contains a few rowed from other languages. They have to UG is seen as a linguistic theory, which components: lexis (all the words or lexical be learnt without the help of UG. postulates principles of grammar, shared items of the language with their linguistic by all languages and considered to be properties) and syntax (the combination of Later, Chomsky gradually abandons the innate to human beings. Chomsky propos - the lexical items into syntactic structures. LAD model of acquisition in favour of the es that there is a set of grammar rules Syntactic structures then, as seen by parameter-setting model. This improved responsible for organizing the language Radford (2004) find input into two further model of language acquisition claims that and explaining the process of children’s components of grammar: the semantic Universal Grammar exists in the child’s language acquisition. This set of rules component, which “maps or converts the mind as a system of principles and param - belongs to the Universal Grammar. syntactic structure into a corresponding eters. Influenced by the surrounding envi - semantic representation of the linguistic ronment, the child creates a core grammar The article presents a few arguments for aspects of its meaning” and a PF compo - that sets values to all the parameters of a the existence of Universal Grammar, nent, which in its turn, “maps the syntactic certain language which he speaks as namely: the Structure-dependency and the structure into a Phonetic Form representa - native. Cook (1988) sees the UG principles Projection principle which explain the struc - tion, telling us how each word is pro - as “principles of the initial state” and the tural relationship within the sentence and nounced” (Radford, 2004, p. 5). In Projection principle, Binding, Government, the close interdependency between syntax Radford’s model below it can be seen that and so on, as “the building structure of the , lexical information and phonetic represen - the semantic representation interfaces with language faculty in the human mind” tation. The variety of languages can be the systems of thought and the PF repre - (Cook, 1988, p.56). The child does not explained with the existence of universal sentation – with systems of speech. actually acquire certain grammar rules but parameters, which are set differently in dif - Radford (2004, p. 5). rather settings for the different parameters, ferent languages. The process of setting which combined with the system of princi - these parameters has been studied by ples, form the core grammar. This means, Chomsky’s Principles-and-Parameters that acquiring a language is mainly setting Theory and is closely connected with chil - all the UG parameters appropriately. Apart dren’s first language acquisition. from that, a child learns a huge amount of Fig. 1 Radford’s model vocabulary items, together with their pro - What is Universal Grammar? nunciation, meaning and syntactic restric - Chomsky has defined UG as “the system The Universal Grammar Model and tions. So, apart from setting a few parame - of principles, conditions, and rules that are language acquisition ters, a child has to learn the lexicon of his elements or properties of all human lan - The early Universal Grammar Model L1, together with rules which are not core guages” (Chomsky, 1976, p.29).This (Chomsky, 1964) gives an idea how the UG but “peripheral”. To summarise, using means that a native speaker of a language model works: Chomsky’s idea, “what we know innately” knows a set of principles that can be are the core grammar principles and the applied to all languages and parameters parameters associated with them; what we that vary from one language to another. have to learn are “the values of the param - Fig. 2 Early UG model eters and the elements of the periphery” Contrary to the taxonomic approach of tra - (Chomsky, 1980b, p.47). ditional grammar, Chomsky takes a cogni - Following this model, the process of lan - tive approach to studying grammar as, in guage acquisition includes data going into Arguments for the existence of the his view, linguistics should discover what the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) Universal Grammar knowledge enables people to speak and and coming out as a formed grammar. The hypothesis that the process of lan - understand their native language fluently, guage acquisition depends on an innate and therefore, it is just a part of the much Universal Grammar enforces the form language faculty is called the innateness wider study of cognition – what human which the grammar of a certain language hypothesis . The innateness hypothesis,

14 features eBritain Spring 2011

put forward by Chomsky, claims that the instinct”. Research in Neurolinguistics has This “grammatical judgement” is always process of language acquisition is geneti - also confirmed that certain parts of the correct and does not depend on whether cally predetermined by an innate language brain are linked to specific linguistic func - the child has ever heard the sentence faculty. This language faculty incorporates tions. before. Neither does it depend on whether a set of universal grammatical principles the sentence is meaningful or not; or that influence the way grammatical opera - The ability to speak and acquire languages whether it is true or not. For the authors the tions work. is unique to human beings and natural lan - explanation is that “unconscious knowl - guages abide principles which are unique edge of the syntactic rules of grammar per - However, some linguists like Carnie (2002) to humans and reflect the nature of the mits speakers to make grammatical judge - have a different view on the innateness human mind. What is more, language ments”. hypothesis. Looking at language from a acquisition is an ability which all humans logical perspective, he argues that “an infi - possess independently of their intelligence. All the evidence for UG mentioned so far is nitely productive system like the rules of An interesting fact which deserves atten - quite convincing. But still, there are so Language cannot have been learnt or tion in the process of language acquisition, many different languages around the acquired” as “infinite systems are both unlearnable and unacquirable”. So he sug - gests that “it is built in” (Carnie, 2002, p.13). Carnie also claims that the reason for infinite systems to be unlearnable is the input you receive can never be sufficient to make sure you have all the relevant facts. This is the so-called ‘ logical problem of lan - guage acquisition’ . Generative Grammar gets around this logical problem by sug - gesting that a child who acquires his moth - er tongue relies on Universal Grammar in constructing his knowledge of language. UG actually restricts the number of the pos - sible functions that map situations to utter - ances, thus making language learnable. So, finally, this fact supports the existence of the Universal Grammar.

Another argument for the existence of the UG concerns the ability of L1 speakers to judge the grammaticality of sentences. Nobody has ever taught them what is and what is not grammatical, nor can they draw a conclusion from the data they have heard. The conclusion is that they were born with this knowledge. This argument is called the underdetermination of the data argument .

There are also typological arguments which support the existence of an innate language faculty. As Carnie (2002) puts it down, it is a fact that all the languages in as noted by Radford (2004) is that “the uni - globe., and they differ in terms of words the world share certain properties. These formity in the types of grammars developed used in them, so vocabulary is something are called universals of language . He by different speakers of the same language which has to be ‘learnt’ or ‘memorized’. explains their existence as a result of the suggests that children have genetic guid - Other differences between languages con - fact that “all speakers of human languages ance” in constructing their L1 grammar cern the basic word order of the sentences, share the same basic innate materials for (Radford, 2004, p. 7). The rapidity of L1 which has to be acquired. This process is building their language’s grammar” acquisition points out to the same fact. It is usually described as setting certain innate (Carnie, 2002, p.18). A proof for this claim also difficult to explain children’s L1 acqui - parameters by selecting among possible is that children “go through the same sition only by the input they are exposed to variants. Language variation is thus stages and make the same mistakes when as very often it is imperfect or even reduced to learning the correct set of words acquiring their language, no matter what ungrammatical. And, at the same time, it is and to selecting from a predetermined set their cultural background”. Finally, Carnie a fact that any native speaker can judge of options. But, first of all, which are these points out a few biological arguments in correctly the grammaticality of a sentence, UG parameters? favour of UG. He characterises Language i.e. human beings are genetically predis - as “both human-specific and pervasive posed to do that with their native language. UG parameters across the species” (Carnie, 2002, p. 18). Fromkin and Roadman (1998) also point While principles of UG “define the structur - Every human being, unless he has some out to the fact that “grammaticality” is not al architecture of human language, varia - physical impairment, seems to have based on anything taught but rather on “the tion between particular languages is Language. This points out to the fact that rules constructed unconsciously as chil - accounted for by a small number of param - Language must be “a genetically endowed dren” (Fromkin & Rodman, 1998, p.106). eters of variation allowed within the overall

15 features eBritain Spring 2011

design defined by the principles” (Hawkins, prove that these languages differ in the to propose a general principle of linguistic 2001, p. 13). It is not possible that all requirement to front a single wh-word in structure on the basis of observations of a aspects of the grammar of languages are English but does not have to move to the single language” (Chomsky, 1980b, p.48) universal; otherwise all natural languages front of the sentence in Chinese. Again, and further hypothesises that aspects of would be the same and there would be no this is a binary parameter: a language the theory of UG are “disprovable”, and a necessity for grammatical learning involved either does or does not allow a wh-move - principle might have been attributed to UG in language acquisition. With the situation ment. and turned out later to have its peculiarities as it is, grammatical learning should not in languages like Chinese or English or to include learning those aspects of grammar Still another variation concerning the possi - be breached by a certain language but this which are universal (i.e. determined by uni - ble word order within a phrase is the posi - is the normal situation with any scientific versal grammatical operations and princi - tion of heads and complements. In English hypothesis. ples). It would only involve learning the lan - the head normally precedes the comple - guage-specific parameters and the range ment, no matter whether the head is a If we compare UG principles and UG of parametric variation which can be found noun, verb, preposition or an adjective, so parameters, we can say that the former in natural languages. it is a head-first language. However, a lan - enforce a set of requirements which have guage like Korean, for example, is a head- to be met by any human language, while A type of parametric variation across lan - last language and the phrase head takes a the latter cater for the syntactic variation guages can be demonstrated by using the postposition: it follows its complement. This between languages. Any particular lan - following sentences in two languages: is an example of the Head-Position guage then has specific settings for the UG English and Italian. Parameter , which, as Radford (2004) parameters. As Chomsky puts it down: points out, is “within narrowly circum - “The grammar of a language can be (a) Marco parla italiano. scribed limits” as there are lots of possible regarded as a particular set of values for (b) Parla italiano. variations of the position of the comple - the parameters, while the overall system of (c) Marco speaks Italian. ment, depending on the nature of the verb rules, principles and parameters, is UG (d) *Speaks Italian. within the phrase. which we may take to be one element of human biological endowment, namely the What we can see from the examples above Hawkins (2001, pp.14-15) though, speci - “language faculty” ‘(Chomsky, 1982a, p.7). is that in both languages the verbs can take fies that “the structure of every phrase in an overt subject and object. But while in every human language is of the same Parameter Setting Italian the verb might be used without an type”. It always consists of a head X (which The theory of parameters has significant overt subject (or it has a null subject ), in stands for any of the categories N, V, A, P) implications on the theory of language English the verb speaks cannot exist with - that projects to a phrase consisting of the acquisition. In the process of L1 acquisi - out an overt subject. So, sentence (d) is head and its complement, or X’ = X-bar. tion, a child has to construct a grammar of ungrammatical. In conclusion, we can say So, a N’ means a phrase, consisting of an his language. The innate Language Faculty that Italian is a null-subject language, while N and its complement; V’ – a phrase con - enforces a set of universal grammatical English is not. sisting of V and its complement and so on. principles and a set of grammatical param - The “maximal projection” of all these phras - eters or constraints on the language in This is a clear example that apparently, es is XP (a phrase of the type X) and the question. If grammatical variation contains there exists a parametric variation between X’-theory is actually a hypothesis about a a lot of binary parameters, it makes the languages concerning whether or not they principle of UG. As the author describes it: process of acquisition much simpler and allow finite verbs to have null subjects. As “phrases in all languages are projected easier as a child only has to find out which Radford (2004) points out, the Null-Subject from head categories, and optionally con - of the twoalternative parameters is the Parameter is a binary one: it only has two sists of two higher levels of structure: X’ appropriate one for his native language. possible settings for a particular language: and XP”. Different languages, however, opt Certainly, an L1 learner also has to acquire it either allows or does not allow finite verbs for different settings of these parameters. his native vocabulary, the range and com - in this language to have null-subjects. For example, in English specifiers normally bination of words. In other words, he has to precede and complements follow the head. perform the task of lexical learning, apart An interesting question raised by Cook But in Japanese both typically precede; in from the grammar parameter-setting. So, (1988) concerns principles which are not Malagasy both follow, and so on. these two tasks are the focus of the found inall languages, namely, the concept Principles-and-Parameters Theory (PPT), of movement which is widely employed in All the examples so far prove that there are developed by Chomsky at the beginning of some languages like English to explain universal constraints on the parametric 1980s (Chomsky, 1981). constructions such as passives or ques - variation of certain language properties. tions. However, certain languages do not The theory of parametric variation explains The PPT model hugely facilitates the share this necessity of movement as a syn - that with the existence of the language fac - acquisition process as the universal gram - tactic structure. Japanese, for instance, ulty which “imposes genetic constraints on matical properties do not need to be learnt. uses a completely different mechanism for the range of parametric variation permitted Only the ones which are subject to para - constructing questions and does not in natural language grammars” (Radford, metric variation across natural languages require a syntactic movement. Therefore, 2004, p. 16). What is more, in most cases have to be learnt and in most cases this Cook considers the presence or absence parameters constrain the variation learning process is simplified to a binary of syntactic movement to be a parameter of between languages to the simplest choice choice. This leads to the assumption that variation between languages. Such param - possible: to a binary one. grammar acquisition involves a series of eter of variation between languages con - simple settings of binary parameters and cerns the word order in wh-questions. As for the question whether a principle is explains the fact why it is so fast and error- Therefore, it is called Wh-parameter . universal if it happens to be present only in free with young L1 learners. Radford (2004) gives convincing examples some or one single language, Cook refers with sentences in Chinese and English to to Chomsky’s words: “I have not hesitated

16 features eBritain Spring 2011

The Government/Binding Theory surface structure (“at which they have been demonstrate the close link between appar - In his later works, Chomsky (1981a) devel - moved”) as Cook (1988, p.30) puts it down. ently independent aspects of language, ops the Government/Binding Model which such as syntax, lexis and phonetic form. explains the connection between “sounds So, the d-structure contains the essential However, the article does not claim to have and meanings”, a connection between structural relationship between the sen - covered all the aspects of UG or the variety apparently unrelated aspects of language. tence elements, which, through movement, of parameters and their different settings in On the one hand, “sounds are the physical are represented in the s-structure. The s- many different languages. form of speech, meaningless in them - structure still indicates the original location selves” as Cook (1988, p. 28) defines of the sentence elements through “traces”. It does, though, present a few arguments them. On the other hand, meanings are As Cook (1988, pp.31-33) puts all the for the existence of Universal Grammar “abstract mental representations, inde - strings together, d-structure accounts for and throws some light on the universal pendent of physical form”. It is a fact that the phrase structure through the X-bar the - principles to which all human languages one and the same abstract notion is ory, which in its turn, “sets the value for the abide and universal parameters, set differ - expressed in different languages by a total - head parameter”. The Projection Principle ently in different languages, which explain ly different string of sounds. Describing a that projects the lexical meaning onto syn - the variety of existing languages. sentence from a grammatical point of view tax, connects the d-structure to s-structure will include not only how it is pronounced and “LF to the lexicon by specifying the (the string of sounds, stress, intonation and possible contexts in which a particular lexi - Bibliography so on) but it should account for its meaning cal item can occur”. Syntax also accounts (the semantics), as well as the syntactic for the functional roles of the sentence ele - Allen, J.P.B. & Van Buren, P., 1971. Chomsky: structure which connects them. Cook ments, called θ-roles by GB. By interaction Selected readings. London: Oxford University (1988, p.29, Figure 2.1) presents a model with the X-bar parameter and the projection Press. in which it is clear that “syntactic structure principle, θ- roles are assigned to sentence Carnie, A., 2002. Syntax: a generative introduc - plays a central mediating role between elements. tion. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. physical form and abstract meaning”: These roles express “a type of meaning Chomsky, N., 1968. Syntactic structures. 7th directly relevant to the LF component and Printing. The Hague.Paris: Mouton. indirectly to the semantic component” and satisfy the θ- criterion. The movement Chomsky, N., 1969. Aspects of the theory of nd between d-structure and s-structure is Syntax. 2 Printing. Cambridge (MA): The M.I.T. Press. restricted by the Structure-Dependency principle and by the Bounding Theory, Chomsky, N., 1981a. Lectures on government Fig. 3 Cook’s model a which limits the distance an element can and biding . Dordrecht: Foris. move. One more sub-theory, the Case However, Chomsky’s Government/Binding Theory (which caters for the “assignment of Chomsky, N., 1981b. Principles and parame - theory (GB) presents a slightly different particular ‘cases’ to Noun Phrases in the ters in syntactic theory. In N. Hornstein and D. connection between “phonetic form” (PF) sentence” and for the difference between Lightfoot, eds. Explanations in linguistics . Lon - and “logical form” (LF) as “representations certain surface forms like she, her, hers, don: Longman. of syntactic meaning, mediated through etc.) can be linked to d-structure and s- Chomsky, N., 1995. The minimalist program . syntax” (Cook, 1988, p. 29, Figure 2.2): structure, thus coming to the complex Cambridge (MA): M.I.T. Press. Cook’s model (Cook, 1988, p.33, Figure 2.6), which elaborately matches syntax to Cook, V.,1988. Chomsky’s Universal Gram - PF and LF components: mar: an introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publish - ers.

Fromkin, V.,1998. The sentence patterns of language. In Fromkin, V. & Rodman, R., eds. An introduction to language. 6th edition. Or - Fig. 4 Cook’s model b lando (Fl): Harcourt Brace College Publishers. Ch. 4, pp. 105-56. As seen in this model, PF and LF form the relation between grammar and other areas. Fromkin, V., ed., 2000. Linguistics: an intro - “PF and LF constitute the interface duction to linguistic theory. Malden (MA): Black - between language and other cognitive sys - well Publishers Ltd. tems, yielding direct representation of Hawkins, R., 2001. Second language syntax: a sound on the one hand and meanings on Fig. 5 Cook’s complex model generative introduction. Malden (MA): Black - the other as language and other systems well Publishing. interact”(Chomsky, 1986, p.68). However, In conclusion, we can say that all the Cook (1988, p.30) argues that Fig.2.1 is a examples presented in this article prove O’Gradey, W., Dobrovolsky, M. & Katamba, F., clearer representation of the fact that syn - convincingly the existence of the UG as a 1996 . Contemporary linguistics: an introduc - tax functions as a “bridge” between sounds system of universal principles and rules, tion. 3rd ed. London: Longman. and meanings, claiming that what a child present in all human languages. UG princi - acquires in his L1 is “the syntactic interface ples and parameters are of significant Radford, A. 1997. Syntactic theory and the rather than phonology or meaning”.GB the - importance for structuring the grammars of structure of English: a minimalist approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ory further elaborates the syntactic repre - the existing human languages. While the sentation, presenting the idea of deep principles are universal, parameters might Radford, A., 2004. English syntax: an introduc - structure (“at which all the elements in the opt for different settings, hence the variety tion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. sentence are in their original location”) and of grammatical rules. The examples also

17 features eBritain Spring 2011

Every Cloud has a storage lining

Seagate’s Wes Perdue , Cloud Strategy, Enterprise PLM, explains how the Cloud’s growing traction with enterprises presents opportunities for storage players

Cloud Computing is positive for storage. resources, data storage, network band - business value to new programs and initia - It’s good for the storage service providers width, and even applications. The model tives that companies need to launch in a and for the storage infrastructure suppliers. includes characteristics such as on- timely manner. Below is a chart that As more and more applications are devel - demand, self-service; rapid elasticity; breaks out the driving factors for adopting oped and computing resources demanded measured service (pay-as-you-use); Cloud Computing. more storage is created. According to IDC, resource pooling and broad network storage is the fastest growing Cloud serv - access. Companies are deploying several cate - ice, growing from 9% of all Cloud service gories of business applications that are revenues in 2009, or $1.6B, to 14% in 2013 There are three well-known Cloud service driving rapid data growth and require a or over $6B of Worldwide IT Cloud servic - types: Software as a Service (SaaS), more dynamic storage infrastructure to es revenue . The arms dealers providing where a customer uses a service accommodate this growth. Given those storage hardware, software and profes - provider’s application over a network; deployments and today’s dynamic markets, sional services to the Cloud service Platform as a Service (PaaS), where a companies need an IT infrastructure that is providers raked in $2.9B in Cloud storage service provider’s platform is used to dynamic and can respond quickly to chang - infrastructure revenue in 2009, according deploy a customer-generated application ing business needs. Cloud Computing pro - to IDC . to the Cloud; and Infrastructure as a vides the dynamic elasticity required to Service (IaaS), where customers pay for achieve their business objectives. The This growth will continue as an increasing the usage of processing, storage, network chart below illustrates the range and popu - number of enterprises experience the abili - bandwidth and other IT resources. There larity of reason why companies favour ty to deliver more value with fewer are four kinds of Cloud deployments includ - Cloud Computing: resources while keeping up with constant ing Public, which are typically mega-scale change, one of the many benefits provided infrastructures used and shared by multiple The big hitters in terms of applications that by Cloud Computing. Due to the Cloud’s customers; Private, which are owned or are being moved to the Cloud include: E- rapid elasticity of compute resources and leased for use by an individual customer; mail, Archiving, CRM and Storage. Some lower cost structure, Cloud Computing will Community, which is a shared infrastruc - industries are moving faster to the Cloud drive more applications and computing ture by customers who have a common front than others. The top 3 industries demand that will result in a higher demand interest, such as medical centers; and adopting Cloud Computing are Technology, of storage across all enterprise storage Hybrid, which is a composition of two or Financial Services and Legal/Professional tiers. In addition to the shear growth of more Clouds. Services . storage driven by Cloud Computing, there are opportunities to provide new storage Why Clouds form What makes Clouds different device solutions that will help solve Cloud Although many different surveys are being There are fundamental design differences data center cost challenges and opera - conducted to examine the perception and that make Clouds different from traditional tional inefficiencies. adoption of Cloud Computing, they are on-premise data centers. Service finding similar results. While security and Providers perspective on their data center It is easy to become carried away in all of integration issues are the biggest concerns is one of a value or revenue generating the hype and excitement brought on by about Cloud Computing, these concerns asset. A traditional on-premise data center Cloud Computing, but it is delivering real have not dissuaded companies from adopt - is typically viewed as a cost center. This value to enterprises, SMBs and con - ing Cloud Computing. Furthermore, for difference is one of the key reasons why sumers. Cloud Computing and Storage is those companies that are already using the two environments are architected dif - real, it’s sustainable and although it’s rela - Cloud Computing, there is a very high sat - ferently. Many of the large internet data tively a small percentage of the overall IT isfaction level. 70% of those that are cur - center companies’ philosophy on architect - market today, it is becoming a disruptive rently using Clouds plan to move addition - ing a Cloud environment is based upon and significant opportunity. Although an al applications within the next 12 months. deploying low-cost, scalable, commodi - increasing number of commercial and large Cloud Computing is becoming a perma - tized hardware with a software layer that enterprise companies are benefiting from nent part of the IT discussion and strategy. glues the inexpensive hardware together to Cloud Computing today, we believe it will create a more scalable model. take 3-5 years for broad-scale Cloud adop - So what is drawing companies to adopt tion. Clouds? Although there are many drivers, Clouds are also based upon a self-service cost savings and agility are the two biggest model, multi-tenancy enabled in part by vir - What is the Cloud? reasons companies are adopting Cloud tualization, and a high level of autonomics The Cloud has become such a popular Computing. The pay-as-you-use cost and homogeneity. A traditional on-premise term that its meaning has been adapted for model and CAPEX reductions that Cloud environment is typically a heterogeneous, a wide variety of services and applications, enables is one of the top reasons that com - shared-service model with less automation so it’s necessary to outline the Cloud as we panies are adopting Cloud. Also, the and manages assets independently for see it. Essentially, the Cloud is a new dynamic scaling to quickly provision and each user or application. A Cloud’s deploy - model for delivering and consuming IT de-provision IT resources that Cloud ment model is distributed as opposed to resources, such as, computer (server) Computing provides adds tremendous decentralized with a client-server model.

18 features eBritain Spring 2011

Another very important difference is that ecosystem operates under a different busi - foundation for security, a unified storage Clouds are designed for failure instead of ness model than the traditional on-premise approach promotes sustainability and cre - failover, which aligns well with their utiliza - IT ecosystem, employing a deal or RFQ ates a foundation of powerful, yet simple tion of replication as the primary model for model for procuring server, storage and enterprise-class storage solutions for the data protection due to its simplicity and networking infrastructure. Large storage demanding and multiple array of different massive scalability. OEMs have reorganized the need for applications in the data centers. Cloud-focused business units, and have Finally, open-source software is common in aligned their business models with the There is a massive opportunity for storage Cloud Computing driven by a symbiotic Cloud service providers; responding in a companies that have a broad enterprise relationship. While massive data centers streamlined, transparent manner to RFQs portfolio of drive products, specifically built on low-cost commodity hardware and and delivering purpose-built solutions that designed for each tier of storage and for virtualized operating environments provide more exactly meet the needs of the Cloud. each type of application and quality of serv - the technical foundation for global, cloud- ice level in a data center. To a large based services, open-source software What does this all mean for storage? degree, the application’s workload deter - enables global, service-based business Applications drive the workload, reliability mines the type of physical resources, models. These differences enable Clouds and performance needs of any system. including type of drive, but as enterprises to achieve lower service costs through Applications in Cloud data centers run needs change they need a storage suppli - greater resource sharing, greater 24x7, have high workloads and run in high er that can integrate seamlessly.

How the Clouds will form In summary, we believe that the Cloud will continue to evolve and expand driving more applications, more computing demand which will in turn, drive more stor - age for the data centers as well as more local storage.

However, the Cloud will wholesale replace enterprise data centers. We believe that many companies will move from an internal IT model to an outsourced Cloud model. Most of these will be the small-to-mid-size companies. The larger enterprise compa - nies will migrate their non-critical applica - tions and data to the Cloud, and some will migrate and outsource their entire IT oper - ations. However, many larger companies Source: www.mimecast.com 2010 will keep their critical applications and data internally, behind their firewall. Many larg - er companies will also adopt a hybrid economies of scale, greater levels of archi - vibration environments that require enter - model, utilizing the Cloud for providing cer - tectural standardization, greater process prise-class storage devices, such as, tain IT services while at the same time optimization and automation, and the abili - HDDs and SSDs. Enterprise-class drives maintaining other internal IT services. ty to modify the usage of those resources are designed for a multiple drive system much more quickly than traditional IT envi - environment such as servers and external We estimate mainstream Cloud adoption to ronments. storage systems that operate 24 hours a be in the 2012-2013 timeframe. To the day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Non- degree that companies will adopt Cloud The Cloud is demanding enterprise class or personal storage drives services for their diverse set of applications Of course, any new technology presents are designed for a single drive environment boils down to many factors; one of the challenges and Cloud Computing is no and have a much lower design usage, more important of these is trust. Earning exception. As Cloud Computing datacen - lower duty cycle and a simpler, lighter this trust will take some time. ters are architected based upon a simple, workload. To ensure success with “design for failure” infrastructure model, it is demanding Cloud applications, it is highly not practical to purchase off-the-shelf sys - recommended to use enterprise-class tems designed for the traditional mass IT drives that are designed for enterprise market. These products are too expensive applications that run in a Cloud data center References and include features that do not meet the environment. 1. IDC eXchange, IDC’s New IT Cloud Cloud’s unique data center environment Services Forecast: 2009-2013, and application requirements. Clouds use Storage architecture needs to be well (http://blogs.idc.com/ie/?p=543) low cost, purpose-built, scalable solutions; aligned with the Cloud architectural including, purpose-built servers, storage approach to increase simplicity, lower costs 2. IDC, Worldwide Cloud Services Storage systems and networking products, while and achieve greater scalability. It’s impor - Spending 2009-2013 Forecast: Storage for still utilizing standard delivery models and tant to provide a unified approach that the Cloud, Doc #221368, Dec 2009 massive economies of scale. reduces complexity and optimizes energy efficiency and performance footprint for the 3. Mimecast, Feb 2010 Cloud Computing has established new data center. By simplifying around a single 4. Mimecast, Feb 2010 rules that require change. The Cloud interface and form factor, and upon a single

19 features eBritain Spring 2011

Casio Bluetooth Low Energy Watch Communicates with Smart Phones

Casio’s prototype features wireless • The size of the watch case is a comfort - technology for short-range communica - able 53.4 (D) x 44.4 (W) x 12.8 (T) mil - tion.with very low power consumption. limeters A prototype of the watch was exhibited at the International Consumer Main functions: Electronics Show in Las Vegas. • Accurate time information can be trans - mitted from a smart phone to the watch to Taking advantage of the low power con - ensure correct time sumption of the new Bluetooth technology, the new watch powers functions with a sin - • The watch includes an alert signal to noti - gle button-cell battery, the same kind used fy of incoming calls and e-mail messages in small devices and watches. It does this sent to the user’s smart phone without losing any battery life compared to conventional wristwatches. The battery life • A smart phone’s ring alerts and vibration is estimated at approximately two years can be stopped by tapping the watch based on the prototype model, assuming that the Bluetooth® wireless communica - • Alarm and vibration functions of a smart tion function is used for 12 hours per day. phone can be activated using a watch This means that users can wear it every - button. day just like a wristwatch, without the both - er of the recharging required by typical mobile devices. Main Specifications of the Prototype Bluetooth® Low Energy Watch Communication Data Transfer Rate 1 Mbps Casio’s new prototype can communicate Specifications with smart phones equipped with Bluetooth Signal Strength 0 dBm (1mW) Low Energy Wireless Technology, which Signal Range 2–5 m (may differ depending on surrounding will be available in the near future and be conditions) able to connect to networks of various kinds of devices. The prototype demon - Encryption Method 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) strates how to expand the ways people use Communication Functions Time Correction The watch can be synchronized with time their watches, unlike anything ever seen information transmitted from a smart phone before, as new applications are developed for smart phones to enable communication Incoming Call and The watch alerts users of incoming calls and between watches through smart phones. E-mail Alert e-mail messages sent to a smart phone Finder Function Alarm and vibration functions of a smart Casio will manufacture its first Bluetooth phone can be activated using a watch button Low Energy Watch later this year. Meanwhile, Casio will call for partner com - Watch Functions Alarm 5 independent daily alarms; hourly time sig - panies to develop applications compatible nal; vibration function with smart phones and other household Stopwatch 1/100-second; measuring capacity: devices in such areas as sports, health, 23:59’59.99”; split time home entertainment, security, and commu - Countdown Timer Measuring unit: 1 second; Input range: 1 nication with family members and friends. minute to 24 hours

Overview of Casio’s prototype World Time 100 cities (35 time zones, daylight saving Bluetooth® Low Energy Watch on/off) and Coordinated Universal Time Light Electro-luminescent backlight with afterglow Main features: • Wireless communication is powered by Other Full auto-calendar, 12/24-hour format; sleep mode the button-cell battery used in small devices and watches Power Source CR2032

• Battery life with the communication func - Approx. Battery Life Approx. 2 years (assuming the communica - (Based on Prototype Model) tion function is used for 12 hours per day) tions is the same as previously released watches Size of Case 53.4 × 44.4 × 12.8 mm

Total Weight Approx. 50g

20 features eBritain Spring 2011

Employees Ease Work Woes by Shopping Online • 4pm on Wednesday is the peak-time for % increase in online workplace shopping shopping Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Average • Post-lunch fatigue sends workers online to shop From To • Online shopping surges by 52% at 4pm during the working week 12pm 2pm 11% 27% 3% 3% 12% 11% • InvisibleHand’s real-time pricing technolo - 9am 4pm 53% 42% 75% 36% 52% 52% gy has identified almost £20 million in savings for UK online shoppers • Download and use InvisibleHand for free shopping during the working week is at stresses and problems, there's little won - at www.getinvisiblehand.com 4pm. Figures from Invisible Hand show der people head online to spend money. there is an average 52% increase in online Whether it is for yourself or someone else, Employees are hitting the online shopping shopping compared to the morning. browsing the online stores offers light relief aisles during office hours to get away from at work and at home. work pressures, according to research The largest shopping rush comes when from real-time online shopping tool employees are celebrating the 'hump' of "Whenever people are shopping online Invisible Hand.1 the week seeing a 75% increase of shop - they should make sure they are not paying ping at 4pm on Wednesday. over the odds for products. Rather than Workers hit a post-lunch slump and as a shopping around and visiting a number of result head online for some retail therapy, Pre-Monday work blues means that mid - sites, often with out of date prices, Invisible as data shows an 11% increase in the num - night shopping on a Sunday is the most Hand will automatically notify a consumer ber of online shoppers at 2pm, compared popular midnight hour for spending on of the cheapest price without them ever to midday. plastic, with a 27% increase from the low - having to leave the site they are on." est level of the week. 2pm isn’t the only time workers whip out InvisibleHand is free to download in less their plastic to pass those work hours by, as Robin Landy, founder of InvisibleHand, than a minute via the website, www.get - research shows the largest surge of online says: “With work providing a number of invisiblehand.com.

21 features eBritain Spring 2011

Global Partnership during Economic Crisis

Dr Muhammad Farmer, Principal of the ated two new economic landscapes one nomic policies, including the fiscal expansion British Institute of Technology and led by United States and its allies and other of US$5 trillion, significantly enhance finan - E-commerce, spoke at a Forum on by the collection of countries known as cial regulations, notably by the establish - Partnership in Chennai, India . BRIC. Despite the largely touted word of ment of the Financial Stability Board(FSB); interdependence both economically and and substantially strengthen the Interna - mankind! We have created politically the countries such as those mak - tional Financial Institutions(IFIs), including you from male and female and ing up the BRIC block are fast emerging as the expansion of resources and the improve - h“avO e made you into nations and tribes, economic locomotive of the 21st Century. ment of precautionary lending facilities of the IFIs. that you may know one another. Indeed In an address to bankers Mervyn King the most noblest of you with Allaah is called attention to the, “extraordinarily sud - The question is whether the new strategy is the one who has the most piety.” den, severe, and simultaneous downturn of a practical solution to the present crisis. The Quran activity and trade in every corner of the The G20 plan is based on the belief that world economy.” growth, to be sustained, has to be shared thank you for inviting me to this important and that the global plan for recovery must Partnership Summit. The ideals of this The governments steering of low interest have at its heart the needs and jobs of fam - Iannual event are close to my heart for in rates in the UK has been welcomed by ilies, not just in developed countries but in the UK the organisation, which I head, the businesses, however banks have been emerging markets and the poorest coun - British Institute of Technology and E-com - unable to make this available to their cus - tries of the world. The G20 leaders believe merce (BITE) holds a similar annual event, tomers. The banks which have assured that the only foundation for sustainable the World Hi Tech Forum in London which government they will widen their lending globalisation and rising prosperity is an brings the global community together to are proving recalcitrant with only the rela - open world economy based on market prin - facilitate technological and business part - tively safest borrowers often succeeding in ciples, effective regulation, and strong nerships. Speakers and delegates from getting loans. Banks have shown little global institutions. But the question is, can organisations around the world meet to dis - imagination, or some would say resolve in world leaders of diverse economies work cuss partnerships based on developing sharing some of the benefits derived from together on a common plan which they can technology and high-level, shared learning. the government’s wise interest policy. actually implement when budgets are tight? I cannot emphasize enough the importance Major regulatory failures were at the very of international dialogue like this. Through heart of the crisis. But with the succession Also while the G-20 is committed to deliver it we make new friends and contacts. Even of reports of the bonuses those working in the scale of sustained fiscal effort neces - those who seem to have opposed ideas financial institutions are still receiving even sary to restore growth, nobody knows to can find that their differences melt or at when their banks have been backed by what extent this package will create a sig - least they can gain new perspectives on government has left the public suspicious. nificant surge in employment or if it will just problems when they meet regularly to Many governments have promised to take burden fragile economies with more debt. decide how they can work together. It is a action to build a stronger, more globally pity that there often has to be a problem for consistent, supervisory and regulatory Manufacturing us to work together. In this world of rapid framework for the future financial sector, Manufacturing is usually one of the main global communications we should be doing which will support sustainable global sectors hit during recession so I would like it as matter of course. growth and serve the needs of business to consider how global partnerships can and citizens. But the question the Prime help spread the risk and ensure that tech - Throughout the year we also hold ad hoc Minister, Gordon Brown and other leaders nologies continue to be developed. seminars to discuss current events such as must surely answer is how to draw the les - Manufacturing is increasingly involving our Leadership in Times of Crisis seminar sons out of what has proved to be a near close international partnerships covering last year where one of our guest speakers, cataclysmic financial and socio-economic the whole product evolution process from the former Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun conjuncture. concept to production. One of the signifi - Dr Mahathir considered lessons we can cant factors in success in the future will be learn from the Currency crisis of 1997-98 - To tackle the financial and economic crisis a clear vision of the whole process from because history does seem to repeat itself that spread across the globe in 2008, the G- technology to market. Entrepreneurs must and we can learn from our mistakes. 20 members were called upon to further consider the global picture in all aspects of strengthen international cooperation. The their planning, whether it is technology cre - World economy G-20 has already delivered a number of sig - ation and development, production or mar - The world economy has gone into an era of nificant outcomes. For example, it commit - keting. Innovation is essential, whether it is de-coupling of the emerging economies ted to implement expansionary macroeco - in the form of new technology or in the from the traditional powers. This has cre -

22 features eBritain Spring 2011

approach to business development and ply of new developments to achieve and partnering. maintain a global lead. We need to have There is a clear need to improve on an seminars such as this to hear from both internet infrastructure which is as inherent - A key consideration is the rapidly changing governments and industry about best prac - ly fragile, in business security terms, as the balance of research, technology and man - tice, in both the support and exploitation of present one. It is essential that we look at ufacturing between developed and devel - research and considerations of intellectual ways to optimise and render safe the cyber oping nations. It is no longer enough to property protection. business world. There is need for a con - develop a product and then look for ‘cheap certed effort by heads of government to manufacturing’ elsewhere. Developing A planned Innovation Process is crucial. In reach a common agreement on establish - nations have expertise in all stages of the today’s world, new inventions and their use ing a regulatory body who will take charge process, and this must be harnessed effi - in innovative products and services are the of the security, standards, technology and ciently. basis for many new businesses. An essen - management. In achieving this, the eco - tial pre-requisite is thus the existence of a nomic powers of the world must support Our first World Hi Tech Forum focussed on strong science base, whether national or the developing countries in a shared initia - India . India is increasingly a favoured des - international. Business success usually tive if they wish to realise the potential of a tination for manufacturing. Why? A well goes to the first to identify and utilise these common global ‘enhanced internet’ to work educated, motivated work force, willing to new discoveries for benefit to business and for the benefit of all. take the initiative and fluent in English and the economy. One key aspect of this suc - a move to break some of the bureaucratic cess is the ability to identify relevant new Finally let me consider world trade and systems which have hampered it in the technologies at a very early stage and to education. Growth has underpinned rising past. In the longer term, close partnerships acquire them for business benefit. In the prosperity for half a century. But it is now covering the whole product evolution from ‘global economy’, these discoveries could falling for the first time in 25 years. Falling concept to production will become the arise anywhere, so a truly world-wide demand is exacerbated by growing protec - norm, but there is no doubt that production approach is essential. tionist pressures and a withdrawal of trade will still form a key part of the partnership. credit. Reinvigorating world trade and Whilst it is not possible to predict every investment is essential for restoring global The sectors affected are wide, include development in technology, and certainly growth. We must not repeat the historic communication, aerospace, automotive, not new fundamental discoveries, the suc - mistakes of protectionism of previous eras. information technology, electronics and cessful organisation will have the ability to printing. Key aspects include Design and identify and assess new discoveries and I firmly believe that amidst all this change Future-proofing in prototyping; Evolution developments as they emerge. Relevance we must never lose sight of the moral from Manufacturing to Service Models; to the operation of the organisation must dimension. In a global society our respon - Aligned buyers and sellers in Service be judged, and decisions taken whether to sibility is not just to ourselves our families Systems; Energy recycling in Electronics; monitor or actively pursue these matters. and our country but to everyone on this Closed loops, recycling and Polymers and planet through partnership. For if we take Closing loops for mobile phones. Transforming business the selfish route of simply attempting to Areas of concern are skills development, Throughout the history of technology, there enrich ourselves, this will come back to training, informing and consulting. have occurred new developments that haunt our children through global crises in transform business environments, present - future generations. In all we do we have a Partnerships ing major opportunities to adopters, and global responsibility to all humanity. In considering partnerships, let’s look first major threats to established suppliers. at the role of Government. BITE has been Think back in time to the advent of the tele - Higher education plays an essential role in successful in training government and cor - phone, steam engine, air travel, computers society, creating new knowledge, transfer - porate departments. The current financial etc. They changed the world as we know ring it to students and fostering innovation. turbulence has created the need for devel - and how we live and work in it. Make no Institutions throughout the world are work - oping countries to undertake training to mistake, future technological inventions will ing to modernise, both in terms of the raise their staff skills to the level of the make even more radical changes to how course they offer and the way they operate. developed nation in order to interact and we live and work, let’s make sure these The British Institute of Technology & E- better facilitate business development. changes benefit all of us and enhance the commerce is one such organisation. BITE’s re-skilling and training is based firm - qualities of our lives. ly on client objectives and cultural and Many today perceive the excellent British social background, rather than any generic The research community is truly world- pedagogic system as the best amongst the approach. The importance and complexity wide. In seeking innovation and competi - developed nations. It is therefore not sur - of technology creation and its utilisation is tive advantage, whether for a company or a prising to know that education has overtak - common to many nations all around the nation, it is essential that a global view is en the banking sector in the UK and the world, with varying degrees of support from taken. In particular, the rapidly changing non-domestic student population con - governments. The adoption of e- balance of research, technology and man - tribute no less than twenty billion pounds Government practices is a sign of a com - ufacturing between developed and devel - annually. mitted government. oping nations must be taken into account. Equally, the resources needed for develop - Governments have a prime need to foster ment and production are available in many science and technology, not only for the nations. The successful organisation will nation’s reputation but also for their own consider this in all aspects of their plan - needs (as in defence) and for the econom - ning, whether it is technology creation and ic strength of the nation. The success of development, production or marketing, and high-technology industry will often depend form global partnerships to their mutual on government backing and a regular sup - benefit.

23 features eBritain Spring 2011

China Goes Global Topics: Socio-Politico-Economic Influences; Effects of The Business Environment (Developed & Emerging Economies); Competing with US for Eco-politico-business leadwership; Critical Success Factors; Western Eco- political theories and models and China’s trajectory on Macro & Micro levels.

Dr Lawrence M. Akwetey

Introduction ICBC’s loan book grew from zero to about • Taking over ailing and heavily misman - CHINA SHAKES THE WORLD - James $500m last year, while off-balance sheet aged/non-performing companies Kynge (Weidenfeld & Nicolson £18.99) activities, mainly letters of guarantee, were 'Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she valued at about $1bn, Mr Tian says. Its net • Energy in Africa is big business. The will shake the world.' Napoleon profits for the year were approximately source of vast amounts of energy Bonaparte's words seem eerily prescient $3m. The bank expects to open a branch resources and often times similar amounts today as the shock waves from China's soon in Abu Dhabi, the wealthy capital of of political turmoil, Africa is home to one bil - awakening reverberate across the globe. the United Arab Emirates, to go with those lion potential consumers whose growing James Kynge explores the way we are operating in Qatar and Dubai, and Mr Tian demand for energy is greater than any - increasingly dependent on China's prod - hopes to double business this year. where else in the world. Despite Africa's ucts and markets and the way the slightest wealth of resources change in the Chinese economy quickly And Chinese companies are “knocking on” reaches our doorstep. He explains how this ICBC’s doors in search of information • Low emissions give most African nations spectacular change has occurred and what about Arab markets, says Mr Tian. surprising leverage when it comes to glob - it will mean in the 21st century al carbon markets, which remain a largely Social Influences untapped source of capital for developing China has taken over from the US as the • Corporate social responsibility and the new energy projects on the continent. largest exporter to the Middle East, with best strategies to pursue accelerated trade between the region and Asia growing economic development.(in Africa- US Conditions more than five times between 2001 and Emerging Economies) • Political goodwill, positive encourage - 2008, rising from $110bn to $600bn, ment, constant support for civil society according to HSBC. • Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative and the principles of democracy for Africa and the emerging economies When the Industrial and Commercial Bank (Leon H. Sullivan Foundation) • Constant dialogue with those that are part of China became the first Chinese bank to of the political elite. Support for civil soci - open a subsidiary in the Middle East, it was • How companies can contribute to eco - ety and an independent press. And a will - touted as a significant step towards nomic and social development in Africa ingness to put our resources and money expanding overseas and promoting an (After the partition and exploitation of Africa on the table to help reform - institutional “internationalisation strategy. by the Colonial powers). reform that will strengthen democracy.

24 features eBritain Spring 2011

• If we see people not doing the right • The news that China is poised to overtake Chartered estimates that China’s US things, people who are undermining the the US as the world’s largest producer of Treasury holdings actually stood at about values of democracy, people who are cor - manufactured goods would cause alarm $1,020bn at the end of 2009. rupt, we should not only step back, but we in some quarters –were it not for the fact should criticize in a principled fashion that the people likely to be alarmed about “Overall, it looks like China’s US holdings, foreign competition tend to assume that as a ratio of its total holdings, are still with - Economic Influences China overtook the US 15 years ago. (FT in the normal historical range” of about 68 • Africa has unrealized potential as a pio - 11 August 2008) per cent of its total reserves by the end of neer in the new global energy economy 2009, Mr Green said. “In other words, there USA has been no abnormal break with the dollar • Skyrocketing demand and relatively little Most people in the US Treasury would sub - so far.” legacy energy infrastructure make Africa scribe to the view that the Chinese don’t ripe for the expansion and development have much choice,” said Nicholas Lardy of of green energy like wind and solar. the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think-tank. “So • Potential opportunities that Africa has to they probably won’t give them too much develop a green energy infrastructure credit for this announcement. For those who think China doesn’t have much leeway • Global shift in energy production towards to diversify, this just states the obvious.” the African Continent He added, however, that “on the margins” • China’s carbon-based energy technolo - this could make the US Treasury less like - gies gles to expand electrification to the ly to cite China as a currency manipulator masses in Africa. in a report expected next month. According to most analysts and government officials in both countries, China does not have the (FT March 10, 2010) Political Influences option of wielding foreign exchange pur - • In less developed countries (e.g. in chases as a weapon in bilateral relations. Africa), weak governments and political tur - • Historically unique financial symbiosis moil (Business Exchange, 2010) that had developed between China and “China can diversify a bit on the margins America. but when it comes to investing the $30bn- Globalisation’s Effects on the Business $40bn (€22bn-€29bn, £20bn-£27bn) a • This paradox could mark the end of Environment of firms in Developed month Beijing is accumulating in foreign /Emerging Countries/Africa another attempt to make the world safe exchange reserves, there are only two for global finance • China's investments in Nigeria are worth markets deep and liquid enough – the US $7.24 billion, its Economic and and eurozone government bond markets,” US & China Commercial Counsellor in Nigeria , Mr according to Stephen Green, head of Yet the accumulation of large war chests of Rong Yanson, has said research in greater China for Standard foreign reserves through currency interven - Chartered Bank. “The euro market has • "The Chinese enterprises have made tion carried negative externalities. The shown brilliantly in recent months that it is great contributions to Nigeria's economy arrangement opened a Pandora’s Box of not exactly risk-free.” and they have enjoyed sound business financial distortions that eventually came to relationship with Nigerian firms,"(Daily haunt the global economy. The glut of sav - The prospect of China dumping dollars Trust, (22-02-2010). ings from emerging markets has been a caused a flurry of excitement last month key factor in the decline in US and global when the US Treasury published prelimi - • No fewer than six Chinese firms had real-long term interest rates, despite the nary data showing that China cut its hold - signed trade cooperation agreement with parallel decline in US savings. ings of Treasuries by $34.2bn in the Kaduna State Government December. Total holdings, according to Lower interest rates in turn have enabled • In 2007, Industrial and Commercial Bank revised figures, stood at $895bn at year American households to increase con - of China made Beijing’s biggest direct end. sumption levels and worsened the imbal - investment in Africa when it bought 20 per ance between savings and investment. cent of South Africa’s Standard Bank for US monthly Treasury data is notoriously And because foreign savings were pre - $5.5bn unreliable at showing exactly how much dominantly channeled through government China or other countries are investing in (or central bank) hands into safe assets Developed Countries: US government bonds. One reason is that such as treasuries, private investors turned • The rise of Chinese manufacturing is no monthly surveys are unable to determine elsewhere to look for higher yields. This led cause for hysteria; while it poses some the ultimate buyer of Treasuries if they use to a repricing of financial risks and challenges, the good news far outweighs third parties or subsidiaries in financial cen - unleashed the ingenuity of financial engi - the bad. Nowhere is this more so than in tres such as Hong Kong and London to neers who developed new financial prod - China itself: millions of people are being make purchases. ucts for the low interest rate world, such as lifted out of poverty each year by the securitised debt instruments. country’s rapid economic growth, a story China’s State Administration of Foreign of human progress too rarely acknowl - Exchange (Safe), which manages the This is not to say that reserve accumulation edged by those who fear China. Yet citi - country’s $2,400bn in foreign exchange was the only cause for the current crisis. zens of the developed world also benefit reserves, is known to route purchases Yet the core issue remained the Chinese from the “China price” as consumers (FT through its offices in these two cities. willingness to fund America’s consumption 11 August 2008) Taking this into account, Standard and borrowing habit. Without this support,

25 features eBritain Spring 2011

interest rates in the US would almost cer - manufacture. The bargain that the Chinese thing Beijing disputes – the potential scale tainly have been substantially higher, act - elite has struck with the population in of such disruptions is already clear. The ing as a circuit breaker for the developing exchange for political legitimacy rests on same applies to China's ambitions to proj - debt-consumption bubble. the ability of the economy to generate ect diplomatic and military power. enough jobs to absorb the continuous Beijing and others cannot be blamed for stream of workers flocking to the cities. As But handled correctly, the task is not reckless lending into the housing bubble or has been noted by many commentators, intractable. One does not need to be a leverage in western financial institutions, the Chinese job-generation machine pro - modern-day Neville Chamberlain to recog - but it is clear that a vast amount of capital vides high headline figures of economic nise that it is only natural for China to seek was flowing from a developing country with growth, but hides much waste and ineffi - increased military muscle to match its a per capita income of one tenth of the ciency. Further down the line, there is the growing economic clout. Japan provides a western world to one of the richest spectre of a glass ceiling to Chinese com - telling example of how, without credible mil - economies in the world. Water was flowing petitiveness. To move from a manufactur - itary projection, even economically potent uphill in unprecedented amounts. ing model that is integrated into the supply states struggle to gain influence. chain of WalMart and the production lines Critique of more advanced industries in the devel - Two decades of double-digit spending Moreover, the past years have shown that oped world to one that challenges the have transformed Beijing's military capabil - capital outflows from emerging markets, developed world for dominance is a step ities: it now possesses a large and increas - including China’s reserves accumulation that may not be so easy to take. It is easy ingly sophisticated submarine fleet, a within the constellation we called to compete with Mexico for access to US Russian-built air force, and vastly improved Chimerica, have themselves contributed to markets, but harder to compete with Silicon ballistic, satellite and cyber-warfare capa - the build-up of macroeconomic imbalances Valley bilities. and financial risks that brought the global economy to its knees. After the dust has Financial Times : Common goals for The trick for the US is to ease China into settled, members of the economics profes - China and the US supporting common goals, which is, after sion will have to think hard about what the The biggest challenge the world confronts all, akin to Beijing's stated ambition of right policy advice drawn from financial is coping with the rise of China. Relatively peaceful emergence. In that context, the globalisations 2.0 and 3.0 should be. stable world orders do not easily adapt to resumption of a high-level US-Sino military Neither model has passed the practice test the emergence of new powers. There are dialogue – suspended because of Beijing's with flying colours. painful dislocations at best; catastrophic anger at US arms sales to Taiwan – is very tragedies at worst. In so far as the current welcome. Childish rhetoric about Taiwan China global financial and economic crisis partly must now be put aside. To a large extent, Chinese industry is dom - originated in imbalances generated by inated by low-productivity, labour-intensive China's enormous trade surpluses – some -

26 features eBritain Spring 2011

The two should talk about more important China is one of the few major economies things. Dialogue is necessary first to pre - that is on track to have positive GDP China has been using its increasing wealth vent accidents from spiralling into crisis. growth this year. Merrill Lynch calculates to buy political clout by investing in underde - It should also be used to address legitimate that China will have a GDP growth of 8 per - veloped parts of Asia, Latin America and Washington concerns over Beijing's lack of cent as compared with a 2.8 percent Africa. It is gaining influence in global eco - transparency in military spending, its sup - decline for the United States, a 1.3 percent nomic institutions such as the Group of Eight port for repressive regimes and its efforts at decline for Japan and a 0.6 percent decline and the International Monetary Fund, which espionage, often against the US itself for the European Union. have long been dominated by Western pow - ers. It is the biggest holder of U.S. Treasury But the agenda should be more forward "In 2007, the gap between the growth rates securities. looking than that. It is time to engage China of China and other big countries was huge. more formally in international efforts Actually in 2009 the gap between will be Economists said that despite all the wealth against piracy and terrorism. More thought even bigger," Lu said. implied by such a large GDP, China should should be given to China's developing role still be considered a poor country. in peacekeeping operations. But even if China achieves a projected 8 percent growth rate this year, that may be Yi Xianrong, a researcher at the Chinese There are plenty of pressing diplomatic insufficient to stop the wave of company Academy of Social Sciences, a government- issues – from North Korea to Pakistan- bankruptcies and layoffs that have alarmed affiliated research group, emphasized that Afghanistan – where US and Chinese China's leaders. Economic data released widespread unemployment and rural poverty goals at least superficially overlap. By this week added to the pessimism: Exports are still major problems. China's 1.3 billion seeking to formalise some of these con - dropped 2.8 percent in December from the residents have a per capita GDP of about cerns – six-party talks on North Korea were same month a year ago, the sharpest $2,500 while Germany's 82 million inhabi - a promising start – trust can be gradually decline in a decade. tants enjoy a per capita GDP of $40,400. built. The gap between US and Chinese military power will shrink. That is inevitable. In the early days of the global economic cri - "If we look at the per capita figures, we still Conflict is not. sis, some economists had debated have a long way to go," Yi said. whether China would serve as an engine Washington Post: China Passes that would keep Asia from being pulled into Germany With 3 rd Highest GDP(01/20/09) the turmoil. Pakistan, which was suffering BEIJING, Jan. 14 -- China leapfrogged over from a balance-of-payments crisis, even Germany to become the world's third- came to China looking for a loan. But this References largest economy in 2007, sooner than pre - fall, China found its own economy cooling dicted, underscoring how quickly the con - so fast that its leaders issued statements Moritz Schularick is a visiting scholar at the centration of global economic power has saying the best thing it could do to help the University of Cambridge and teaches eco - shifted. world economy was to help itself. nomics and economic history at the Free University of Berlin While earlier estimates had put growth of Coming into this global slowdown, 30 years China's gross domestic product that year at of capitalist-style reforms pioneered by Martin Feldstein (1999), “A Self-Help Guide for Emerging Markets,” Foreign Affairs, 11.9 percent, revised figures released by China's then-supreme leader Deng March/April 1999 issue, Vol. 78 the government statistics bureau Xiaoping had transformed China from an Wednesday show that its economy actual - isolated and impoverished nation into one Data come from the International Monetary ly expanded by 13 percent to $3.38 trillion. of the world's great economic powers. Fund (2009), World Economic Outlook That compares with Germany's 2007 GDP Years of white-hot, double-digit growth Database, January 2009. of $3.32 trillion. "It was inevitable," said driven by exports and investment went Ting Lu, a Merrill Lynch economist based in hand in hand with achievements in politics, See Ben Bernanke (2007), “Global Hong Kong. science, engineering and the arts. Imbalances: Recent Developments and Prospects”, Bundesbank Lecture, September 11, 2007; and the discussion in Chris Hunt Whether the growth trajectory will continue, Huang Yiping, chief Asia economist for (2008), “Financial Turmoil and Global however, has been complicated by the Citigroup, said China grew so quickly Imbalances - the End of Bretton Woods II?”, global recession, which has already because it had the "advantage of back - Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, prompted massive layoffs and waves of wardness. As China used to be a very Volume 71, September 2008; and Martin Wolf company closures, especially across backward country, there was huge poten - (2009), Fixing Global Finance, New Haven: southeastern China, the heartland of its tial for the economic and technological Yale University Press. A related argument can export-driven economy. If China were to development." be made on the global level where increased returns on capital coincided with a lower cost continue to grow at its current rate, econo - of capital - see Niall Ferguson and Moritz mists say it could surpass Japan in as soon China has trumpeted its achievements, Schularick (2007), “Chimerica and the Global as three years and the United States in 18 especially in the past few years: It hosted Asset Market Boom”, International Finance, years to become the world's No. 1 econo - the Olympics, pulled off its first spacewalk, 10(3). my. and native sons and daughters such as Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi became Hollywood dar - Economic Report of the President (2009), In 2007, the United States remained the lings. Its engineers have created the Washington D.C., January 2009. world's largest economy with a GDP of world's largest building (the Beijing airport Setser, Brad (2009) “Debating the global roots $13.8 trillion and Japan the second-largest terminal), the longest transoceanic bridge of the current crisis”, blog on www.vox.eu, with a $4.38 trillion GDP, according to cal - (connecting Shanghai to Hangzhou), the January 28, 2009. culations based on an annual average of longest plateau railway (to Tibet), the daily exchange rates by Merrill Lynch. fastest train (Shanghai's "maglev") and the Olivier Jeanne (2007), “International largest dam (Three Gorges). Reserves in Emerging Market Countries

27 features eBritain Spring 2011

Advancing Telecare Research and Development: How Technology Can Improve the Quality of Independent Living for the Elderly

Dr Ying Lui provides access to social services with Typically, as Figure 1 shows, advanced tone-and-shaped touch buttons and recog - telecare services must underpinned by ICT The world’s population is aging and seeing nises Helen’s face and finger print, so infrastructure at the back-end, and by rapid changes in the social and living envi - nobody else can unlock and use it. She can devices at the user front-end that measure ronment. Reportedly, the number of elderly talk to her carer about her situations; the physiological status and other data. The (aged over 65) is increasing by 8 million gadget updates her records with real time network elements transmit data to a serv - per year 1; By 2025 in UK, more than a third information, and reports to her surgery of the population will be over 55 2. But in liv - whenever it is necessary. The gadget ing longer, not everyone is staying active comes with a supply of wearable sensors. and healthy in the later life. She can attach the sensors supplied to her body and wear them to get her health con - “[In the UK] Aging combined with an ditions checked: blood pressure, weight, increasing burden of chronic disease pulse and blood glucose levels. The gadg - threatens to make current models of et wirelessly collects and transports the healthcare unsustainable within a few data to the medical centre to be analysed. decades. … The costs would start to rise in The gadget also reminds her regularly to 2010 and by 2050 delivery using current check a number of times a week at specif - models could cost four times what it does ic times. If she is not at home, the gadget now” 3. stores the data temporarily and remotely transmits these to her surgery. Recent R&D (research and development) Investment shows that advanced telecare technology There is a considerable amount of invest - may hold the keys to solutions to these ment and research effort for advancing problems. Telecare is referred to as being highly portable systems that monitor the the delivery of health and social care serv - health status of people with chronic (e.g. ices at a home setting by the use of sensor, diabetes and asthma) and degenerative information and communication technolo - (e.g. respiratory and cardiovascular) dis - gies (ICT). But to what extent can the new eases. Googling on the Web with key word technology improve the quality of elderly such as “Telecare,“ “Body Sensor peoples’ lives? In this article, we share our Network,“ “Ubiquitous Healthcare,“ research experiences, highlight some of “Pervasive Healthcare,“ “Assisted Living the most promising aspects in the near Technology“, one can easily find the large future, as well as the significant barriers variety of healthcare and medical applica - and challenges we currently have in such tions of wireless networks. Many of the development. applications also are fielded, e.g., commu - nity based integrated screening, a use of Living Alone but always in touch modern transmission of glucose values to Lets consider the following scenario. reduce the costs and need for clinic visits; a multi-site emergency based telemedicine Helen is 67 and lives alone. She has dia - service; a use of 3G mobile phone links for ice centre and then to a health profession - betic retinopathy (a side effect of diabetes telecom consultation between a moving al (e.g. physician) for review; It also has that is a leading cause of blindness among ambulance and a hospital base station. components that enable the “right” medical the working-age population). Because of Even though significant research and field - and healthcare professionals to access the her poor health, she needs to see her doc - ed work toward the telecare advancement patients’ data records, or appropriately tor regularly. Helen has heard about the has been done, there is a dearth of desir - speaking Electronic Health Records Telecare services that install a computer able service products. (EHR), and present any feedbacks to indi - and wireless kit in her home. The device

28 features eBritain Spring 2011

Figure 1: an illustration of telecare infrastructure

vidual users. All this must be done in a population. They may have difficulty walk - on applied research dedicated to the timely, secure, trusted and reliable manner, ing or climbing steps, a hearing or vision preservation of the technologies or, more and this imposes a great challenge to pro - loss, dyslexia or other reading-related dis - significantly, on an organisation dedicated visioning a large scale of Telecare Services ability. Thus, despite the ethical issues con - to changing services as technologies in real world communities. For instance, cerning trust, privacy, security and reliabili - improve. A service architecture must be ubiquitous EHR cannot be interoperated in ty, which have been long debated, many able to incorporate a new technology, absence of what, where, who and how we users’ contexts may be more difficult to upgrade a service, or create a new one. propose the systems to be used. understand, and can be inadequately rep - resented in a phase of device specialisa - “If you have devices receiving data and you tion. It is necessary to know how the vari - don’t have EMR in place, then you don’t ous devices’ special properties may func - have the ability to monitor exceptions from tion in many alternative use cases, so as to care guidelines.” 4 make bespoke solutions feasible. A service platform is needed to allow devices to References The role of communication in patient safe - “plug-and-play” to meet the specific needs ty must be envisioned. This has been evi - of the various users. 1. Bloom, D.E., Canning, D. and Fink, denced by efforts constantly made for G (2008) “Population aging and eco - improving the effectiveness of communica - In summary, rapid deployment of wireless nomic growth”. HIGH Harvard Initiative tion among EHR and health/medical care sensor technologies, together with hand- for Global Health. held and ubiquitous computing, sensor net - http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/pgda/Wo professionals. High risks of market failures rking%20Papers/2008/PGDA_WP_31.p due to “design-reality gaps” are inevitable. works, data communication networks, df [Accessed by 26 January 2009]. Ineffective and insufficient service provi - mobile and wearable smart devices, make sioning may frequently cause preventable it possible to provide services for smart 2. Travis, A (2008) “Aging Britain: harm to patients, or result similar failures in homes or remote healthcare monitoring. Pensioners outnumber under-16s for health information systems. Whilst a dvanced telecare technologies first time”. Guardian, Friday 22 August. offer new potentials to support elderly’s http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008 independent living, the technologies also /aug/22/population.socialtrends What also must be noted is that barriers [Accessed by 26 January 2009]. exist in users’ access to telecare. When can give rise to new problems. The tech - devices add new features, the relevant nologies will have a profound impact on the 3. _, “Bainbridge Warns of Need for services may have to adopt the changes, type, content, location, operation and func - Telecare”. E-Health Insider, 23 June e.g. incorporating vibration-tones and tionality of care products and services. An 2008. http://articles.icmcc.org/2008/06/23/b downloadable information in Braille for - innovative approach is required so that the increasingly specialised devices can be ainbridge-warns-of-need-for-telecare/ mats. There is a strong correlation between [Accessed by 26 January 2009]. disability and age: up to one-third of the supported by a flexible architecture for population aged between 50 and 60 have a dynamic, non-text reading services, and all 4. Holt, M (2006) “Continua health disability. This also means that the preva - this must be integrated with the earlier alliance: a new coalition to standardize remote monitoring”. Health IT World lence of disability in society is set to grow services. The management of emerging technologies must be sustainable and News, Cambridge Health-tech Institute, with predicted demographic changes in the June 15, 2006. coordinated, and this cannot depend only

29 features eBritain Spring 2011 eCall : Smart cars to save lives?

Graham Jarvis takes a look at how European Commission, there are at least 8% of all vehicles will have the system mobile telematics in the form of the 38,000 fatalities on Europe’s roads each installed by 2011. This represents a lost European Commissions’ Emergency year. Some 2005 statistics suggest that opportunity to more immediately reduce Call (eCall) project could help to reduce with the enlargement of the European road accident fatalities and injuries, involv - road accident fatalities. Union (EU) this figure increased to about ing cars and other vehicles, by at least 48,000 deaths involving motor vehicles. 15%. The European Commissions’ Emergency Even so, the EU says that more than 1.6 Call (eCall) project could reduce road million people are also injured in road acci - injuries by up to 15%. According to the dents each year.

Back on the UK agenda The equally sad thing is that the mass How can eCall save lives? “The subject of eCall is very much back adoption deadline is likely to be overshot Well, imagine that you are stranded after a on the UK agenda. My colleague, Peter by at least a year or two, and that’s even breakdown or an accident somewhere Bourke is currently investigating with the though the eCall type of system has been deep into the countryside, and with very British government and British Telecom around for more than a decade. few people around. It could take hours how we can bring this safety feature to Independent business consultant, John before someone finds you and then calls Britain for the benefit of our customers in Archer, thinks that even this prediction is the police, fire or ambulance services to the UK.” optimistic. “You are talking about 12-18 deal with your injuries or situation. This Stuart Anderson, PSA Peugeot years to get to 80% market penetration of would reduce their chances of saving your Citroen, Corporate Communications all cars”, he says while predicting that only life or the opportunity to minimise the

30 features eBritain Spring 2011

No demand, no eCall option push than a pull to make sure that eCall 2 cars. “It was not so well understood by “We are not offering eCall as an option at becomes a standard fitting in all new and our customers and it was too expensive”, the moment, because customers aren’t used vehicles. says Christian Rousseau, Director requesting it enough and its adoption Delegate of Transport Policy Department, has to be market driven. However, we “When regulation is implemented, the vol - Renault SA. So the idea behind eCall is not are working towards developing a low ume of new cars equipped with eCall will new, but it’s essentially a European cost eCall option, and have taken this grow considerably, ad we will see higher Commission project for the pan-European challenge to the European Commission. levels of market penetration”, says Joost standardisation of the system. “There are Van Den Bosch, Global Extended Offer no systems out there that qualify as being Renault is also ready to sign an agree - Manager of Volvo Cars. He also highlights pan-European”, says Archer before adding ment with all of the original equipment the key problem that the vehicle manufac - that it “almost died.” manufacturers (OEMs) to launch such turers have in terms of stimulating demand. an option as this…” When asked most people think that the Customers view eCall systems as being a Christian Rousseau, Director system is a good idea, but there’s a totally matter of “public due services”, says Delegate of Transport Policy different reaction when you ask them how Rousseau, Director Delegate of Transport Department, Renault SA much they would pay for it to be installed in Policy Department, Renault SA. This again their cars. “They say nothing as they feel it seems to supports the view that demand should be part of the car, and so manufac - will only increase if legislation plays a role impact on your injuries, leading to longer turers need to add other services that you in making it a standard fitting with all vehi - convalescence periods. can charge customers for, and vehicle cles rather than just offered as an option. tracking is an example of this”, he adds. Although the company is committed to the In contrast a car fitted with an eCall system can automatically send an SMS or dial to make a 999 or 112 emergency call to a state regulated or private contact centre (a Public Service Answering Point - PSAP), alerting the emergency services in an instant. Through eCall the contact agents receive information called the minimum dataset (MDS), giving data about the loca - tion of the vehicle, the time, the severity of the incident, and specific details about the vehicle (type, registration number, colour and so on) to make vehicle identification much easier – speeding up the ability of the emergency services to locate it and save lives.

Work to be done The trouble is that there is still some work to be done to create common communica - tion protocols, infrastructure standards and human-related processes, to make the public more aware of the system and its benefits than it is presently, and there are questions about whether mass adoption will only occur through increasing market demand for the systems, or as a result of new legislation being introduced. The latter Increasing awareness project, Renault’s prior experience is mak - might become an absolute imperative if the Volvo has an integrated system, which is ing it tread cautiously with eCall. Like EU is really to meet its own road safety tar - currently being sold in 12 European mar - Toyota, eCall is not currently being fitted gets. That’s simply because different vehi - kets. Sales volumes vary between the dif - into Renault’s new vehicles. David Crouch cle manufacturers offer different marketing ferent countries, but its eCall sales stand at from Toyota’s press office says, “First we and technological approaches to eCall, and about 2-5% of its total sales. The UK has need clear technical standards and an different countries do too. So the other key had prior exposure to telematics systems infrastructure that can support eCall.” success factor is about making sure the like vehicle tracking, so as a market it is system becomes truly pan-European, both ahead of rest. There is still some work to be Examples of eCall Module Vendors integrated and standardised to enable an done to increase people’s knowledge, Wavecom eCall to be received by any PSAP within awareness and understanding of what Telit the EU. Surely this requires pan-European eCall is all about. Note too, that the manu - Infineon legislation to achieve? Leaving it to be just facturers often give their own eCall solu - Cinterion an add-on option to a new car won’t help to tions different product names – which could Delphi enough save lives, nor will a lack of overall add to any potential confusion. Autoliv systems and process integration. Can we Magnetti Morelli rely on market demand alone to achieve Renault made an Emergency Call system Bosch the European Commission’s targets? available to its customers back in 1998, Continental There’s evidence that it needs more of a which was called Odysline and available on Flextronics

31 features eBritain Spring 2011

Slow progress panies to the telecommunications compa - eCall costs are prohibitive Progress is slow, and negotiations are con - nies and the eCall module vendors, he Unfortunately, as things are, the European tinuing. Apparently there has been some believes that it will not be possible to “move Commission’s stated aim of having it agreement about which transport protocols all of the parties with different interests into installed in all cars is likely to not happen – will be used to send and receive the data. a single direction.” or least not for a while yet. Beyond the “The rest of the standards are up in the air, technical and infrastructure-related factors, and so there is still a lot of work to do with Rousseau is more hopeful and less scepti - the cost of the systems themselves is seen standardisation”, explains Archer. cal about the progress that is being made. as prohibitive. An eCall system can cost “Renault is waiting for the approved stan - customers up to and over £918 (1,000 He feels there is too much talk and not dards to create an efficient and relevant euros) for an integrated system (one that is enough action to drive the project’s imple - eCall service, and we hope this will be fitted by the factory into the vehicle, and

mentation forward. He says there was a 100% achieved by the middle of 2009”, he works when the airbag is engaged). The meeting recently to set up another new says. drivers of low end market vehicles may not committee to “look at how to move eCall be able to afford eCall, and that’s even forward, and they gave the chairmanship to Whether or not this target is reached, and though they are potentially more vulnerable Ertico.” even demand plays a role, Archer believes than someone driving a BMW 7 Series car. the Commission has to grab hold of the ini - While some are confident about all of the tiative and make it a legislative issue. Good If you were to compare the retail price tag stakeholders coming together, from the will and partnership, in his view, is not to what eCall costs the automobile manu - vehicle manufacturers and insurance com - going to be sufficient make eCall common - facturers, you’d probably wonder what the place in every vehicle – new and old - in the fuss is all about. John Archer reckons that The vehicle manufacturer’s dilemma European Union. Volvo’s integrated system, which is avail - “I think eCall is never going to be a able for about £918, probably costs the standalone service. They will package “Mass adoption of eCall may happen company no more than £183 (200 euros). eCall with other telematics service to through demand, but it won’t be pan- He says he’d be very surprised if it were to allow them to create a revenue stream European as specified for all makes of be more expensive than this. An eCall TCU because eCall is pure cost. It doesn’t cars”, he says before adding that “there costs between £55-65 (60-70 euros). create a revenue flow back to the manu - may also be pressure from consumer bod - facturer. You either just break even, in ies and insurance companies in its favour.” On the face of it eCall doesn’t look that terms of awareness and perception of costly, but it all adds up and it’s not seen as brand quality or you offer other services The use of seat belts, for example, was very profitable. So the car manufacturers on a pay per use basis – which would once an option but now in the UK at least are looking for compensation from the make them money.” it’s a legal obligation. Wearing a seat belt European Commission in order to keep John Archer, Independent Business saves lives. If eCall can too, then why prices down and to give them a small prof - Consultant should it be left as an optional extra? it margin. Unfortunately, the Commission is

32 features eBritain Spring 2011

BMW case study: not just eCall additional services in conjunction with be no gamble, and eCall shouldn’t just be Emergency 999 Call (eCall) telematics provider WirelessCar. “ When a an option but an obligatory system that’s fit - Manual: to summon help for you and crash occurs our system sends a lot of data ted into each and every car. It’s time to get other road users with the SOS button. to the call centre, whether the engine is smart! • Automatic: in the event of an accident, running, battery status, doors open or the exact vehicle position is forwarded closed. You can send information about to the 999 Emergency Service Centre. how many people are in the car”, he says. • Excellent reliability in an accident He adds that Volvo’s eCall system doesn’t thanks to an embedded SIM card. quite send all of this data yet, but stresses Further reading and information: that there is an enormous difference Breakdown Call (B-Call) between the two offerings. Volvo’s system eCall Safety Video, European Commission, 2007: http://212.68.215.195/esafety/ecall_hq_ • Intelligent roadside assistance. will soon enable the sending of information about how many people are in the car to 2b.wmv Information Plus the emergency contact centre. Like the other vehicle manufacturers Volvo is in About eCall, Wikipedia – • Telephone enquiry service: personal, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECall free-of-charge assistance with direct “Discussion with the emergency services transfer of addresses to the navigation about what is important and what is not.” The European Union’s ‘Intelligent Car Initia - system, or telephone numbers for use Volvo is very keen to profit from eCall in tive’: http://ec.europa.eu/information_soci - with a paired Bluetooth telephone. order to maintain its brand image, that of ety/activities/intelligentcar/index_en.htm producing some of the safest cars on the The European Union’s Intelligent Car My Info with Google Send to Car road though innovation. Its system is simi - Brochure: http://ec.europa.eu/information_so - • Search and send business listings or lar to BMW’s offering, which is also fully integrated into its own cars. ciety/activities/intelligentcar/docs/right_col - residential addresses from Google umn/intelligent_car_brochure.pdf Maps. “Volvo are not fans of pan-European eCall”, BMW ConnectDrive Website: Remote Services claims Archer, “because they would have to http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/tech - • Remote door locking and unlocking via adapt their system to every market”. He nology/connecteddrive/overview.html the BMW service centre. says that Volvo’s system in not line with the • Intelligent roadside assistance. notion of being pan-European, because it Volvo On Call: doesn’t yet use the same technologies that http://www.volvocars.com/uk/salesandser - are required to make it so. However, it does vices/Volvo%20on%20Call/Pages/default.asp Source: www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/con - x necteddrive/0,,___,00.html?siteID=1312 much the same thing and Volvo are “claim - ing to be ahead of everyone else”, he Renault: http://www.renault.co.uk/ unlikely to accept this proposal though. explains. Herein lies another potential blockage to At Enterprise Forum 2009, Alcatel-Lucent the eCall project. But is eCall Big Brother? demonstrates a next generation integrated “It’s not a case of Big Brother watching you, solution for emergency call handling, based Look at the after sales market first? because It’s only activated when the cus - on PSA Peugeot Citroën eCall system: “If you want to be innovative, I have always tomer decides – only be people within the http://www.alcatel- said you have got to go for the aftermarket car, or when an accident occurs”, says Van lucent.com/wps/portal/!ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPy first”, says Archer. This is because older Den Bosch. He has found that customers kssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLd4x3tXDUL8h like it. vehicles are more likely to crash, and 2VAQAURh_Yw!!?LMSG_CABINET=Docs_a therefore they would benefit the most from nd_Resource_Ctr&LMSG_CONTENT_FILE= having an eCall system. There is consen - Smarter Cars News_Releases_2009/News_Arti - sus that the old cars represent a significant In the near future we will have systems that cle_001476.xml opportunity, but most of the focus is more allow us to speak to other drivers in their likely to be on new vehicles to begin with. cars or receive information from a module ACEA - European Automobile Manufactur - Cost remains a potentially limiting factor that updates us about the traffic ahead. ers ‘ Association : http://www.acea.be/ here too. “Renault has to think about the Volvo also has a system that uses radar technology, automatically breaking when it eSaftey Forum: http://ec.europa.eu/informa - aftermarket offer; one that can be adapted tion_society/activities/esafety/forum/index_en to for use in old cars, and at the cheapest detects an object – whether a person or .htm price”, says Christian Rousseau who sees otherwise – and prevents an accident from the eCall aftermarket as a commercial occurring. Accidents caused by blind spots eSafety Support: issue, dependent on customers demanding can also be prevented by having rear-fac - http://www.esafetysupport.org/en/esafety_ac - the systems. ing cameras, which warn you when over - tivities/esafety_forum/ taking if another vehicle is in your blind Joost Van Den Bosch says that aftermarket spot. ERITCO: http://www.ertico.com/en/activities/safety/esaf solutions are not fully integrated, and as a ety_forum.htm result they won’t activate automatically Some manufacturers are also offering a when the airbag is released. Instead this night vision system, allowing you see eCall initiative status, André Vits: kind of standalone eCall system is activat - what’s ahead when your vision as a driver http://www.simbaproject.org/download/Rus - ed by a shock sensor upon impact in acci - is impaired. Most of these innovations are sia/PDFs_presentation_Russia_22_Oct_08/e dent. Although available as an option, in designed to make cars safer, to prevent Call%20Andre%20Vits%20-%20simba.pdf comparison Volvo’s eCall system is said to accidents. In contrast eCall is essential for be able to provide more information than a saving lives once one has happened, and ETSI: http://www.etsi.org/WebSite/home - non-integrated aftermarket solution can do, that’s why we need the appropriate legisla - page.aspx and he says that Volvo’s system can offer tion now. When it comes to life there should

33 features eBritain Spring 2011

The Impact of Nanotechnology on the Construction Sector

Dr Alan Smith and Yakub Ahmed

Nanotechnology is attracting a lot of atten - how to reach the vision. There are now a tion in many quarters, and we are already vast number of roadmaps freely available The next step is the vision for where we seeing nano-based products arriving in our on the web, and even in the materials and want to be, which is very similar to a homes. Technology roadmaps for the con - chemicals area there were about 20 Foresight exercise. The third stage is to struction industry herald the impact that recorded in 2003 3.. Figure 1 summarises look at what is going to stop us getting to nanotechnology will have on the sector. the types of roadmaps that have been pro - that vision, i.e. what are the barriers stop - ping us achieving our objectives. Finally, ‘Nano’ is derived from the Greek for dwarf, the priorities have to be decided regarding and nanotechnology refers to the technolo - what has to be done, and in what time gies that result from being able to exploit frame, to overcome the barriers to the very different properties that occur progress. when one is working at extremely small dimensions. One nanometre, by the way, There have been other studies that have is one millionth of a millimetre, and 80,000 either carried out including foresight exer - nanoparticles in a row would still only be cises related to the construction industry 7, the diameter of a hair from your head. If and some have been more specific, cover - you take a cubic metre of a material, the ing, for example, smart materials 8. surface area is 6 square metres. If you grind that cubic metre down to nanometre Figure 1: Types of roadmaps Nanotechnology in the construction indus - cubes, the surface area would increase to try has received some attention in the past. 6,000 square kilometres; London occupies duced. Industry roadmaps have ranged The previously mentioned Nanomaterials only 1,500 square kilometres! For the con - from glass 4 to the steel industry 5, with the roadmap 6. sets out the priority products struction industry it is these nanoparticles technology specific ones, for example in and processes for housing and construc - and nano-films that will provide different nanomaterials 6, being much more numer - tion as: and beneficial properties for just about ous. Product specific ones tend to be com - every aspect of what we find in our homes. pany roadmaps, to improve a particular • Improved bonding and strength / tough - No wonder nanotechnology has been product range, and hence remain confiden - ness (smaller materials) described as the next industrial revolution. tial to the company. • Concrete (nanotubes or carbon fibre fillers) Nanotechnology has been highlighted in a The procedure for the majority of roadmaps • Drill bits (stronger, longer lasting) Technology Roadmap for Building is to gather knowledgeable people togeth - • Steel (stronger because of nanostruc - Construction that was produced for er and go through the process shown in tures).

In addition, Nanocom 9, the Scottish Centre for Nanotechnology in Construction Materials has held a symposium on Nanotechnology in Construction, and a report from nCRISP 10 . gives an excellent summary of nanotechnology affecting coat - ings.

The Australian Building Construction Technology Roadmap is more general and looks at the house of the future and the technologies that will influence changes. The number of homes in Australia is pre - dicted to go up from 8 million to 11 million by 2025, because of the demographic changes that are occurring worldwide: Figure 2: Stages in the roadmapping exercise • Ageing population, increasing number of Australia 1., and in another one from a Figure 2. The first step of course is to know divorces, women more financially inde - Danish laboratory 2. where the sector or technology is at the pendent, and increased home-based present time. For the “Where are we work, will mean high-density, low-occu - If you are not familiar with roadmapping, it now?” section it is really a benchmarking pancy, flexible communities. is really a future strategy for a sector or exercise – what are the trends and drivers • Continued drive for energy efficiency and technology, and only differs from a and where do we stand relative to the com - reduction of waste will influence housing Foresight exercise in that it emphasises petition?

34 features eBritain Spring 2011

design, changes in equipment and man - faces for refrigerators by incorporating ite. Both Toyota and Mitsubishi have agement. them into the plastic mouldings. Other replaced metal parts under the bonnet with • Information technology and communica - companies are known to be developing nanocomposites because they provide tions, will be seen more in homes through anti-microbial nano-surfaces for kitchen lighter weight and can withstand high tem - more monitoring, connectivity to the out - and bathroom surfaces for stain and mould peratures than conventional composites. side world and general automation. resistance. The most exciting developments though will come from the use of what are called The roadmaps note the following likely Also in the bathroom it is possible to pur - carbon nanotubes that will provide materi - changes: chase products which stop water droplets als that are 50 to 100 times stronger than steel at one-sixth the weight – Home construction and mainte - watch this space. These anti- nance scratch surfaces and also the Prefabrication and off-site con - lighter weight materials are likely to struction will increase, and there find applications in the construction will be more flexibility in design to industry. take account of lifestyle changes. Maintenance and servicing will be Utilities very different with self-cleaning sur - The roadmaps go into detail about faces inside and out, monitoring the changes in how construction things such as structural defects, and design will cope with changes use of longer-life coatings, and use in our use of water, energy and of online diagnostics for appli - communications. ances. It is unlikely to be just an Australian Nanotechnology will be used for problem but the suggestion is for a smart windows which will incorpo - third water pipe in houses that will rate nanoparticles such as zinc be used for the collection and re- oxide for spectral selectivity and use of ‘grey’ water (bath water, thermal control. Nano-coatings are Figure 3: Pilkingtons’ Activ™ washing machine water, etc.) driv - already being used for self-cleaning en by sanctions and rewards. Here glass. Pilkingtons have a product called hanging onto the surfaces in showers. This the suggestion is that multi-functional Activ™, where the glass has a 50 nm layer silica-based lotus effect which provides nano-porous filtration for removal of chem - of titanium dioxide on the surface which, super-hydrophobicity, and has received a ical and biological impurities in water will with the help of sunlight, breaks down dirt great deal of press in relation to clothing. be used. Water quality is an important on the surface, and is then washed off by The Nanocare fabric repels red wine or cof - issue throughout the world and nano-mem - the rain (Figure 3). Similarly, there is fee and demonstrates just how disruptive branes are being developed which can fil - increasing interest in the use of titanium the technology will be to the detergent pro - ter out bacteria and viruses 12 . dioxide nanoparticles to break down the ducers. The earlier products were good for environmental pollutants, such as oxides of aqueous stains but poor with oil based Increased pressure to conserve energy will nitrogen and sulphur. This technique was spillages. However other surface treat - see the increasing use of smart metering, ments have been developed and embedded technology to run smart that repel all types of stains, appliances and automated management. which have resulted in them This will require micro and nano sensor being used for upholstery. development. Some of the more intensive There is working going on to activities involving nanotechnology are in develop fabrics that are cot - ultra thin films for solar cells. The tradition - ton but have the feel of silk al silicon solar cells are robust and fairly due to nanotechnology, and effective, but with the increasing demand smelly socks seem to have for silicon chips in China in particular, the gone out the window with cost for the single crystal silicon that is recent launches of anti- essential, has gone up dramatically. The odour nanotechnology coat - search is on for solar cells that are just thin ings. films of silicon, and an added requirement is that the cells should work well in areas of Other nanotechnology low sunlight. Other coatings being exam - opportunities that are at an ined are based more exotic combinations early stage are improved such as cadmium telluride, and copper sealants and adhesives, indium gallium selenide, as well as novel first used on a church building in Rome, flame-retardant materials, and new insulat - organic systems. This is a rapidly expand - with a view to breaking down exhaust ing materials for both heat and sound. ing area, incentivised by governments fumes from cars, but has also been found introducing credits for those installing cells to provide a cleaner environment by incor - The final lacquer coating on some models in their own homes. There are a number of porating titanium dioxide into concrete for for Mercedes cars now has scratch-resist - roadmaps that focus on these photovoltaic roads 11 . ant surfaces that are nanoparticulate, and cells for generating energy, coming from provide surfaces that stay brighter. The the US, the UK, Europe as a whole, and In addition, Samsung are using silver side-body mouldings of the Chevrolet even from smaller nations such as nanoparticles to provide anti-microbial sur - Impala are a polypropylene nanocompos -

35 features eBritain Spring 2011

Lithuania. For those wanting more detail, balls please” less frequently. the European one is very comprehensive 13 . Such barrier properties are also being used in food For communications, the home will have packaging to keep the increased data and connectivity capacity flavour in and keep out UV with smart wiring, wireless, and self-diag - light that might cause nosis of problems. Again nano-sensors will spoilage of the foodstuff. play a major role. These are based on the Wilson Staff fairway woods fact that at the nano-scale things happen utilise nanoparticulates and fast and more sensitively, which is also carbon nanotubes to enable creating a great deal of interest in the med - golfers to hit the nanocom - ical sector where groups are working on posite ball further and more devices which will detect diseases before accurately. they have taken a hold on the body. Just as development prod - Office and Leisure ucts are tested out in Houses will see an increasing use of the Formula 1 cars before they home for both office and leisure activities. arrive in our own cars, we can expect some There will be increased use of communica - of the developments described above to References tion technology and holographic / video find applications in building construction; conferencing. The major trend of home 1. Building Construction Technology Roadmap, theatre will flourish along http://www.copper.com.au/technology_roadma p/index.html. with increased usage of the Internet. 2. NanoByg – a Survey of Nanoinnovation in Danish Construction, http://bm.di.dk/SiteCol - There are many exam - lectionDocuments/Foreningssites/bm.di.dk/Do ples in the leisure sector wnloadboks/Rapport%20om%20nanote - that are already employ - knologi%20og%20byggeriet%20Risoe%20DT ing nanotechnology to U.pdf. provide improved prod - 3. A Smith, Materials World, Vol. 11, October ucts. Wilson Sports 2003, pages 12-14. have nanocomposite tennis racquets that 4. Glass Technology Roadmap Workshop, have enabled Federer to http://campus.umr.edu/iac/iof/industies/GLASS hit the ball even harder, /glass_roadmap.pdf. and with more accuracy. The Wilson Double Core 5. Steel Industry Technology Roadmap, tennis ball has a http://www.steel.org/mt/roadmap/roadmap.htm. nanocomposite butyl 6. Chemical Industry R&D Roadmap for Nano - rubber layer on the materials by Design, http://www.chemicalvi - inside that keeps the air in the ball when certainly the barrier property applications sion2020.org/pdfs/nano_roadmap.pdf. Federer hits at 150 mph down the Centre could be an early opportunity. Court. We are likely to hear the call “new 7. Built Environment and Transport Foresight Security and Safety Panel, Constructing the Future, http://www.fore - Many roadmaps highlight population pres - sight.gov.uk/Previous_Rounds/Fore - sures and safety concerns having an effect sight_1999_2002/Built_Environment_Trans - port/capreport.pdf. on homes with more sophisticated, auto - mated security systems and environmental 8. Materials Foresight, Smart Materials for the control, remote diagnostics, germ control, 21st Century, http://www.iom3.org/foresight. and fail-safe data transmissions. 9. http://www.nanocom.org. Specifically, nanotechnology is seen as being involved in families of filters for air 10. nCRISP, The Emperor’s New Coating, and water flow to control germs, bacteria, http://www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/re - sourcecentre/publications/document.jsp?doc - dust, pollen and pollution. By way of exam - umentID=113328. ple, the new Dreamliner, Boeing’s 787 model which is just coming into service, 11. Purging NOxious gases, Chemistry & In - has silver nanoparticle based high quality dustry, 26 July 2010, page 10. air filters to keep the air fresher during long transatlantic flights; they kill 99.7% of 12. A Smith, Nanotechnology: An Answer to the influenza germs. World’s Water Crisis?, Chemistry International, Vol. 31, No. 4, July-August 2009, http://www.iu - pac.org/publications/ci/2009/3104/3_smith.html Clearly nanotechnology will have a mas - sive impact on many aspects in the con - 13. A Strategic Research Agenda for Photo - struction industry; it is just a case of ‘watch voltaic Solar Energy Technology, European this space’. Commission, 2007, http://cordis.europa.eu/tech - nology-platforms/pdf/photovoltaics.pdf.

36 features eBritain Spring 2011

SPIRALE

By finding 10 six letter words ending by the letter ‘E’, discover the name of a Polish physicist born in the 19th century who worked in Paris in partnership with her husband.

1- Machine which squeezes water from clothes 2- Wide street in a town 3- To take away 4- Money received regularly 5- To persuade to do something by offer of pleasure 6- A married pair 7- To remove from cover 8- To make deep, continuous sound 9- In prison 10- To break free

Solution on back page Picture clue

37 features eBritain Spring 2011

Dr Joy Joseph Financial Planning

In my previous article I highlighted the need for proper financial discipline and a systematic management of money. Now I will focus on the necessi - ty of proper financial planning and control through personal accounting and budgeting.

n his study on ‘family behaviour’, B.V. you can avoid a number of financial blun - Cunningham (1936) stated that even the ders and reduce unnecessary tension with - KEEPING THE BANKERS IN CHECK Ibest kind of budget might do more harm in the family. One day I asked my bank to sanction a than good if it is carelessly planned and not loan of £10, 000 to cover all my credit cards accepted by all members of a family group. As an example I would like to highlight (costing more than a nominal additional Bernstein (1960), in his article ‘Self- some of my personal experiences. I have 30% of the initial outlay). The assistant Determination: King or Citizen in the Realm been practicing regular accounting since agreed the rate of 16.5%. However, when of Values’, has stated that there is a wide 1983 and have saved a lot of money the Customer Care Officer told me about variety of goals from which an individual or through keeping all my bills and vouchers. the insurance policy, I thought that the rate family may choose. By saving a receipt for £25, I have saved would be an additional 1% of the loan an overall expenditure of £1,055. Recently amount (the rate of insurance agreed by The ultimate goal of financial planning is to when I moved home, I received an electric - the same banker for another transaction) secure one’s financial security. In order to ity bill for £1,080 instead of the £25 I had and it would not come to more than £100 reach the family’s financial potential and estimated it should have been. The gas bill per year. The loan was for a period of 5 maintain the desired quality of life, one was then inadvertently adjusted to include years and, as per their calculation, I had to must initiate a positive personal financial the previous tenant’s bill. By recording the make a payment of £300 per month. Even management programme. This will require meter reading from the beginning of my though I asked about the present rate of the preparation of plans and budgets that tenancy and keeping the receipt I received insurance, the officer avoided that question can act as navigational aids in plotting the for paying the initial bill, I have saved a lot and turned to another matter. course towards achievement of both the of money as I was able to inform the gas family’s short term and long term financial board of just how much I had used since I After getting a copy of the agreement, I goals. moved in. tried to verify the insurance rate but it was made unclear by a staple being put in the “Building a sound financial plan is concep - Also, after remitting the TV licence fee for middle of the paper. Moreover the contract tually similar to erecting a building.” (Gable, one year, two more bills came, including a was printed in a very low font size. I tried to R.C., 1983) In both building construction warning notice for the previous tenant’s lia - open it to check the details, but found I and financial endeavours, a sure founda - bility for non-payment. It was the same for could not. After closely reading the con - tion and strong framework support the fin - the water bill – another one came tract, I noticed that I was committed to pay - ished structure and help it to last. addressed to ‘The Occupier’ (of the same ing £20 000 instead of £13 000 as the aver - Comprehensive planning creates the foun - house where I live) for payment of the bill, age interest rate was now more than 36%. dation and superstructure for success. threatening to disconnect the water supply I applied for a loan of £10 000. He allowed if it was not paid. By keeping a record of that amount and another loan of £5000 to WHERE TO START? when I had moved into the present proper - cover my insurance for the period, plus A systematic management of finance ty and being able to provide evidence of interest for the second loan, at 16.5%. The should be properly recorded and docu - how much I had used and the prompt pay - total came to about £ 7000 more for insur - mented with evidence of expenditure . We ment of my own bills, I was able to clear up ance. Altogether I had to pay approximate - have to start with recording our daily the matter. It is important to keep a record ly £ 20 000 within five years. I was upset expenses and income. For the first few as this would otherwise be hard to explain about this transaction and resolved to do months it will seem to be a somewhat tire - to the utilities companies and the TV something about it. some duty, but later it will become a habit. Licensing Authority. Buy a new diary or an accounting-book I immediately called the Customer Care and, before going to bed, record all your Yet consumers are being cheated in so Officer, but did not receive any reply. The monetary transactions and keep the bills many ways. It is a never-ending process. next day I went to the branch, but he was and vouchers for them for at least one year. Here, I would like to present a good exam - not working on that day. I was told he only It may seem to be difficult for the first few ple which tells everybody to take the nec - worked on Saturdays, so I waited until the months and it may seem to be a waste of essary steps before taking financial deci - next weekend. At the same time I also gave time, but if you practice regular recording sions. a written application to cancel my insur -

38 features eBritain Spring 2011

ance arrangement. Even though I told him tice, there is nothing to prevent this from that I was financially sound (having also set happening – apart from the diligence of the 5. Education up a direct debit for the regular payment client. Includes fees paid, library fees, books pur - without any arrears as proof of this) and chased, internet charges, printing costs, that I had some other insurance, he stated OTHER WAYS TO SAVE MONEY stationary, travel for study purposes, sub - that, on the contrary, I did not have any scriptions, uniforms etc. other source of finance and was not finan - The question may be asked as to how can cially sound. What he recorded was bla - we achieve financial discipline and what 6. Travel tantly untrue! are the steps for an effective and systemat - Expenses for travel, for travel cards, bus ic financial management programme? passes, oyster card charges, maintenance The next time when I saw him he told me Keeping a simple record of expenditure of car, insurance, petrol and diesel, tax, that I could not cancel within the first three is a good way to start. MOT etc. months of signing the contract. I knew that I could within 14 days. I showed him the After recording all expenses and income 7. For Social Obligations relevant clause in the contract and he for one month the next process is to sum - Includes expenses for parties, family get- acknowledged his ignorance. When I tried marise your expenses under the following togethers, for special occasions, gifts, for an application for cancellation he told headings: donations, charities, support to family me that the paperwork was unavailable. I members and friends and relatives etc. told him that I would make a written appli - 1. Food cation, stating the matter clearly and sub - Expenses for food include amount spent 8. Personal Habits mit it to the Senior Manager. Then he for provisions, fruits, vegetables, Amount spent on liquor, cigarettes, chew - assured me that he would arrange for an meat, fish, milk, food from outside, soft ing gum, stamps, photography, pets, hob - application. The next day I got the applica - drinks etc. bies etc. tion form from the Senior Manager, com - pleted it and submitted it officially. Finally 2. Shelter 9. Entertainment they removed the insurance from my loan Expenses for house include rent paid (for Expenses incurred for music, dance, account and now I need to pay no more leasehold property), telephone charges, games, CDs, film, internet connection for than £200 per month - a saving of £100 per expenses for electricity, water, gas, council entertainments, etc are included under this month up to five years, including interest. tax, insurance, maintenance, repairs, deco - heading. Therefore, I was able to save more than ration, valuation and legal charges etc. £7, 000 . In future I will not sign any docu - 10. Miscellaneous ment before reading it thoroughly! 3. Clothing Other expenses like postage, for child care Under this heading come amounts spent and for any other items not included among I advise readers to do the same because for the purchase of new clothes including the above items are included here. they could easily fall prey to the unscrupu - shoes and bags, and for dry cleaning, lous practices of apparently respectable washing, ironing, stitching etc. After preparing a summary of your expens - high street banks. These institutions are es and income, you can also prepare a driven by the need to hit sales targets summary of your capital transactions – rather than invest in the policy of providing 4. Health purchase of assets, sales of assets, loans good advice to borrowers and they often Expenses for medicine, healthcare, hair - taken, loans paid back including interest, achieve these through the tactics of hiding dressing, cosmetics, beauty care, consul - any investments made, any loans given, crucial information in small print provisions. tation fees, travel for health etc. are includ - any loans given back and the final savings Though it perhaps should be illegal prac - ed under this heading. you have in hand and at the bank(s).

39 features eBritain Spring 2011

THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING A BE YOUR OWN FINANCIAL ADVISER resources and thereby achieve the finan - REVIEW This process allows you to follow a sys - cial security of their family. Personal finan - The next step is an evaluation or a review tematic approach which enables you to cial planning enables them to take bet - of the transactions during the month and manage your finances properly without ter decisions relating to income, expen - you have to think whether you could have any waste. A wise forecast can help you diture, savings and investment and avoided any unnecessary expenditure or in this. After two or three months’ prac - hence to improve the satisfaction, qual - not. In the light of the above facts and fig - tice you will become an expert in finan - ity and wealth of the family. ures you can proceed to prepare a budg - cial planning and thereby you can et for the next month . A budget is a finan - achieve financial discipline. “It is true that money isn’t everything, but cial plan for the future which involves the the fact must be faced that money is estimation of future earnings or income and Thus a systematic personal finance man - important . Most people need it for eco - estimation of expenses, savings and agement enables every family to prepare nomic security and to share in the many investments. for a financially bright future. An awareness material things available to make their lives of the personal financial principles stimu - more enjoyable. Earning all one can, lates every person to establish proper spending it wisely, and giving generously, financial goals, to prepare a suitable budg - should help achieve a happy life.” et, to exploit and utilise the existing (Willet, E. R., 1964).

Forget about the past. Plan for the future. If we can start today, by the 2012 Olympics, the financial position of every person, every family and every institu - tion will improve and that will lay the foundation for a great change in the Global Family - the Financial Discipline of the Global family.

In the next issue the author will focus on the management of income and the possi - bilities of increasing income.

References

Asch, D. and Kaye, G.R (2005) Financial Planning, London: Kogan Page.

Bernstein, S. (1960) “Self-Determination: King or Citizen in the realm of values”, Social Work, vol.5, No.1, January.

Callis, S. (2007) Budgeting in 90 Minutes, New Delhi: Indiana Publishing House.

Crowther, D (2004) Managing Finance, London: Elsevier.

Cunningham, B.V. (1936) Family Behaviour, Philadelphia: Saunders.

Forgue, G.I. (2008) Personal Finance (9 th edi - tion), New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Gable, R.C (1983) Investments and Financial Planning, Virginia: Reston Publishing Company.

Lucal, J.B. (2001) Plan Now or Play Later, Princeton: Bloomberg.

Melicher, R.W. and Norton, E.A (2003) Finance (11 th edition), London: John Wiley and Sons.

Willet, E.R (1964) Personal Finance, Ohio: Charles, E. Merril Books.

40 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

SUDOKU

41 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

Chemistry Crossword

Across Down 1 Chemical reaction absorbing heat (11) 1 Found in the periodic table (7) 5 Two adjacent nitrogen atoms between two carbon atoms (3) 2 Journal (5) 7 Its atomic number is 3 (2) 3 Measure the density of liquids (10) 9 Plant with big white flowers (4) 4 Amount of a substance that contains the same number of atoms as 10 Metal liquid at room temperature (7) in 12g of carbon-12 (4) 11 Symbol for the element named after Einstein (2) 5 A faintly shining shadow surrounding the human body (4) 12 Symbol for lanthanum (2) 6 Tendency of solvent to diffuse through porous partition (7) 14 Substance lighter than and insoluble in water(3) 8 Carbon-14 is an ...... of carbon-12 (7) 15 One of the alkali metals (2) 9 Bronze is one (5) 16 Element found in salt (2) 13 Truncheon (5) 19 One the poor metals in group 13 (2) 17 Graphite is one of carbon (9) 20 Chemical decomposition by electric action (12) 18 Unit for intensities of sound (3) 22 Charged atom (3) 21 2-methyl propane is an ...... of butane (6) 24 One of the noble gases (4) 22 Conjugated form of ‘to be’ (2) 25 7 th Greek letter (3) 23 Other way of saying ‘no’ (2) 27 Stationary part of an electric motor (6) 24 Negative answer (2) 30 Other name for calcium oxide: quick ....(4) 26 Caustic soda is one (6) 32 Organic compound such as PVC (7) 28 Amuses children (3) 34 Measure of land (4) 29 Queasiness (5) 36 Its atomic number is 13 (2) 33 Baldmoney (3) 37 When a solid turns directly into a gas (11) 35 Symbol for europium (2) 36 Symbol for astatine (2)

Solution on back page

42 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

An idyllic weekend in the Cotswolds Hélène Maurice

The Lamb Inn stone walls, cosy rooms, open fires and ty of time to chat, digest and enjoy a lovely A family with a young toddler often finds squeaky, uneven floors. evening. One does not feel pressurised to that hotels will not welcome them. Luckily move on. However with a toddler the serv - the Lamb Inn in Burford, part of a group of Staff ice is a little too slow. We had to entertain hotels in the Costwolds, is not one of them. Very friendly, helpful and discreet. As our him for two hours. The wine list is varied We have always found this part of England toddler could not seat through a three and if one prefers beer with one’s meal very romantic with its beautiful houses and course meal, we wandered a couple of they serve delicious local brews, or so said quaint little villages built with warm, very times along the corridor to the bar and my partner. recognisable Cotswolds honey coloured each time someone came to let us know stone. when we were about to be served. We Atmosphere never felt it was an issue. Cosy and warm both in both the rooms and The Lamb Inn situated in Sheep Street just the restaurant. On a cold winter evening off Burford's High Street has well-propor - Food one can forget the world outside and relax tioned public rooms, a bar, several very Very well presented and refined. Small in the glow of the fire. cosy bedrooms and an award-winning tasty extras are presented to you at the restaurant. It has all the charm you would beginning and before the desert. Whether imagine of an old English inn with thick one is there for a romantic soirée or with ☆☆☆☆☆ friends the set up is perfect. You have plen - Rating: 5 stars out of 5

43 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

Marlow: a weekend away on the River Thames

Hélène Maurice

Marlow is one of those charming little affordable. Otherwise try the Marlow Bar food overpriced despite the hotel promot - Buckinghamshire towns nestling along the and Grill with a patio at the back and a mur - ing itself for the quality of it. Even the cof - River Thames. Less than an hour's drive muring cascade from a mini waterfall. The fees are basic. However if one is after a away from London, it’s a relaxing destina - modern food is highly priced but the atmos - romantic weekend or just unwinding, it is tion. phere is pleasant. worth a stay.

You can wander around this historic mar - To escape the noise of the traf - ket town with medieval and Georgian build - fic, aim for Higginson Park ings in an afternoon. It hosts several events along the river. It is dominated all year round such as a Sunday farmers by a grandiose Georgian man - market, regattas, races, the Marlow May sion used for events and the Fayre and a carnival in September. bronze statue of Sir Steve Whatever the weather it is usually bursting Redgrave, Marlow’s Olympic and buzzing with visitors. rowing winner. The park is bare due to a lack of flower beds but one can spend an entire day there picnicking, idling, wandering, watch - ing the passers-by, the boats on the river or feeding the Cliveden House flocks of geese and swans. On the way back after a stay visit one of the National Trust properties nearby such as If one is interested in famous Cliveden, a spectacular estate overlooking people, see the house of the the Thames with various walks and gar - writer Mary Shelley (1797 – dens. Or try Hughenden Manor near High 1851) and the Romantic poet, Wycombe, once the home of the Victorian Shelley in West Street, number statesman, Benjamin Disraeli who lived 104. Unfortunately it is not there from 1848 till his death in 1881. open to the public. There she wrote her worldwide famous Gothic story ‘Frankenstein’. The poet TS Eliot was also an inhabitant of Marlow in the same street. A more contem - porary celebrity bought a house in the area too - Robbie Williams.

Another attraction is the 1832 suspended bridge by William Tierney Clark who also designed bridges in Hammersmith (London) and Marlow bridge and All Saints Church Budapest. Next to it lies the All Saints parish church on the river: A lovely The High Street, although attractive with its site to rest or to look at from the bridge selection of cafés, restaurants and shops, especially at night when it is illuminated. is quite congested during the day since it is Facing it, on the other bank of the river, the main artery leading to the river. For eat - next to the weir, one will find The Compleat ing, a great variety of places are on offer Angler inn. It owes its name to the book of though the prices reflect the popularity of the same title by Izaak Walton the town. A French brasserie like Chez (1593–1683). The rooms are pleasant and Gérard with an outdoor patio hidden away one knows what to expect as it is run by in a quiet alley is definitely worth consider - MacDonald’s hotels. It is very popular due ing. The food is simple but reliable and to its setting. The prices are high and the The Thames at Marlow

44 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

Family House Secrets Hancox, A House and a Family family with the marriage of Milicent Ludlow By Charlotte Moore a strong-willed Victorian woman who had 468pp, Viking acquired it in 1891, to her cousin’s husband £20.00 hardback Norman Moore in 1903.

Hélène Maurice The book takes the reader through the ups and downs that every family inevitably Charlotte Moore has the privilege of still liv - goes through. But what makes it special is ing in the house of her ancestors. This the colourful, influential and talented char - gave her the idea of trying to find out more acters and unique personalities who lived about the history of the house since the in the house. The family was related to building contains the ghostly presences Florence Nightingale and could count the and physical modifications of successive Darwin family and Kipling as friends. generations of the family. A house which has housed and been changed by one It is captivating to have a glance at this sort family for so long begins to act as both a of domestic social history which usually spiritual and physical embodiment of that remains hidden and unwritten. However it family. is the sort of story one has to read through in one go as it is very easy to get confused Hancox, a Tudor house situated in idyllic and lost with all the different members of rural Sussex, became part of the Moore the extended family.

Flowers and Herbs: The Delicate Rose (Rosaceae)

Hélène Maurice Often a symbol of beauty and love, the Many of us love sitting in a warm garden rose is also recognised as having culi - surrounded by beautiful rose shrubs dif - nary and medicinal purposes. Rose fusing an intoxicating, rich scent. But in flavoured food was very popular in big cities many people cannot hope to do Elizabethan times and throughout history that. But you can head for the parks when roses have been used in a wide range of spring then summer arrives. In London, sweet recipes: rose water, rose butter, the Rose Garden in Regents Park has an rose candies, crystallised rose petals to amazing variety of roses on display from decorate cakes. June till August. In his book The English Physician, the physician Nicholas Culpeper (1616-1654) mentions several remedies involv - ing roses from relieving inflammation of the liver to aching joints. The rose's essential oils have various properties from heart tonic, antidepres - sant, antiseptic antiviral saying, ‘un teint de rose’ for a healthy to diuretic. Rose water is complexion. The only time that it is to be also beneficial to all types avoided is during the first four months of of skin, hence the French pregnancy.

45 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

Books...

Mark Winfield

Boldly Gone insufferable but he wasn’t, he was just a thor - TSR2, which were commercial failures. The bril - oughly good chap. No one objected to the high liant design concepts that never made it into pro - Dan Dare: Pilot of mindedness when the stories were so exciting duction or failed to live up to their full commercial and well drawn potential. the Future: a Biography It is the sheer quality of the strips that stands out, Hamilton-Paterson is best known as a novelist Daniel Tatarsky particularly with the first artist Frank Hampson, a and he brings a writerly sensibility to how it felt to Orion Hardback perfectionist who sounds as though he was hell attend the air shows of the early post war period Price £14.99 to work for. He was also the very best of his gen - focussing on the SBAC (Society of British eration. The level of detail and consistency in Aircraft Constructors) shows at Radlett and later an Dare is one continuity was achieved through a studio system Farnborough which showcased British products of the most using models, photographic references of peo - and where daring test pilots diced with death. Dfamous British ple in costume and mock ups of the aliens and The opening chapter deals memorably with the cartoon characters of the their space ships. It was Rolls Royce engineer - Farnborough of 1952 when a twin boom, twin jet 20 th century. Despite hav - ing applied to simple comic strip but the quality DH 110 Vixen prototype flown by John Derry dis - ing been introduced to showed and helped the Eagle to achieve rapid integrated during a display killing both him and the world (well the UK at any rate) in the first edi - pre-eminence in the market right after its launch. his observer and 27 people in the crowd when tion of the Eagle comic in 1950 he remains an Hampson more or less burnt himself out (and an engine ploughed into the assembled specta - icon of the heroic age of British science fiction. several colleagues too) and left when the maga - tors. He captures brilliantly the romance and By now those who knew him directly in his early zine was sold and the new owners were not pre - hopes of the New Elizabethan era when it days would be in their 70’s but he continues to pared to make the expenditures necessary for seemed as if a second British Empire of technol - fascinate new generations. Dan’s future was such a superior product. He was succeeded by ogy, commerce and arts might replace the old 1995 but though 60 years old now the vision of a very good graphic artist but the richness of the one which we were losing. the future still appeals. If only 1995 had been original strips was never quite achieved. Even half as exciting as it was in the comic strips. We within Dan Dare there are degrees of nostalgia. This was just after the war and the companies might have iPods and 3D movies but where is an and the test pilots accepted appalling risks and effective UN world government and space bat - The strip still has an active fan base and reprints losses in the same spirit as they had in combat tles with the implacable Mekon and his evil of the classic stories sell well. The rare original during the war. The attitude infected the whole Venusian underlings? designs that come up at auction command industry to some extent. One British flag carrier impressive prices and memorabilia also trades British South American Airways had such a bad I was too young to really experience Dan at first at high rates. There is persistent talk of a movie record for fatal accidents that its unofficial com - hand but as an eager Cub Scout (it soon wore but I wonder if the highest skills in computer gen - pany slogan was said to be not “We get you off) I helped out at the jumble sales that generat - erated graphics could ever really recapture the there and home again” but “We will inform your ed income for the troop. I always volunteered for pristine 2D worlds of Frank Hampson. Better Next of Kin”. The MD when pressed about the the book stall as this let me have first pick of perhaps to concentrate on eradicating poverty losses said they were trivial when compared with whatever had been donated and at a preferential and getting that UN World Government set up! those he was used to in Bomber Command! rate. It was there that I discovered the old Eagle Personal bravery was the hall mark of most test Annuals which contained complete stories for all pilots and they needed it, their job was scarcely the favourites, PC 49, Harris Tweed – Extra less dangerous than it had been in war time but Special Detective (A pompous buffoon entirely An Aerial Last Huzzah there was a desperate attitude of over compla - reliant on his young assistant -I was type cast as cency and a spirit of “we beat the Luftwaffe, we him in the school play), Riders of the Range and Empire of the can beat the competition. Luck of the Legion but far and away the best was Clouds Dan Dare – Pilot of the Future. Dan was always In 1945 the UK did have the only operational jet in full colour on the front page and every frame James Hamilton - fighter amongst the Allied Powers in the Gloster was beautifully drawn and full of such splendid Paterson Meteor, a rather sturdy looking twin jet which detail. The future was bright and stylish, the Faber & Faber was eventually developed into a useful aero - world was at peace with itself and in Colonel Hardback plane which had a great international sales suc - Dare and his plucky companions it had the Price £20.00 cess and held many world records. It was a lead answer to any uppity aliens with evil intent. that was not to last. The USA’s first efforts at jet Even as a child I found the moral rectitude of the his is the story propulsion were not particularly useful but in the Colonel quite hard to take. He never swore or of the last swept wing North American Sabre they pro - acted badly, and he hardly ever used his ray pis - Tfleeting golden duced a second generation jet that pretty much tol to lethal effect even on that most deserving age of British aviation left the Brits standing. In Korea it could cope villain, the wonderfully resilient and utterly from the end of the with its swept wing rival the Mig 15. The straight remorseless Mekon, usually addressed as "The Second World War until the early sixties. It saw winged Meteors and Vampires of the RAF were Mighty Mekon". There was a good reason for Britain’s aircraft industry decline from a position completely outclassed and the FAA was valiant - this, Dan Dare had been devised by a vicar – if not of world eminence- then certainly that of ly trying to do its bit with the propeller driven Sea specifically to be an exemplar of Christian a major player to the current situation where Fury, a wonderful aircraft in many ways but by behaviour to the children of Great Britain. At one complete aircraft are no longer built in the UK, then a technological dead end. The fact that they stage he was actually going to have been a only engines and sub-assemblies. It is a story actually did shoot down one Mig 15 is a wonder - spacefaring chaplain but fortunately he became which is well known and much lamented by ful testament to British Pluck but no way to win a pilot and was thus able to save humanity and those familiar with economic and aviation histo - an air war. a whole host of alien races too. Two fisted and ry but the author does not merely re-visit such pipe smoking, he was the epitome of British well know disasters as the Comet 1 (quite literal - In fact a bit less pluck and rather more applica - pluck and decency. He ought to have been ly), the Bristol Brabazon, Fairey Rotodyne and tion not to mention a clear and consistent strat -

46 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

egy shared by government, industry and British lowing that episode. He Overseas Aircraft Corporation (BOAC) the was larger than life and it is national flag carrier, might have led to a different hardly surprising that many result. Already severely handicapped by restric - people in politics detested tions imposed by the Americans under the terms him, either as a turncoat or of the war time lend-lease agreements the civil only interested in himself. aviation industry was always going to struggle. It was incapable of the sheer production volume What Churchill ( right ) did that the USA could achieve and lacked the coor - have however was an im - dination of its rivals. It was fragmented and mense energy and enthusi - reliant on ever changing requirements from the asm which quite belied his Ministries of Defence and Supply not to mention years. He bought to the war in BOAC a company which seemed to hate its leadership a relish and an own aircraft industry. It was not short of brilliant enthusiasm which no one designers and engineers but it just could not get else could match amongst a really good product to the market in full work - the British political establish - ing order on time. The RAF had to get Sabres ment, indeed there were as a stop gap until the Hawker Hunter was fully very few fighting men who developed as the new jet fighter and struggled could either. In a way along with frankly sub standard types like the Churchill retained the same Supermarine Swift and Gloster Javelin, both of relish for adventure and which looked fabulous but hardly worked proper - martial glory that he had ly until just before they were retired from service. shown as a young cavalry Ever the poor relation the FAA had to make do subaltern and as war corre - with the mirth inducing Supermarine Attacker. spondent on the North West BOAC wanted Boeings and you begin to see Frontier, at Omdurman and why. The Comet was a world beater, it just kept during the second Boer War. breaking up in mid air. A 707 had a greater pay - Alone of his fellow politicians load and range and it worked. he actually enjoyed making history no matter how des - The story is inevitably a sad one. The tragedy of perate the situation. the lives lost and the waste of commercial oppor - tunities cannot be seen as anything else but the Hastings is acutely aware author is very good at evoking what might have that Britain was not the been and was at its best glorious. There were dominant partner amongst its Fuhrer so he was not allowed to impose his the three V Bombers, the successful prop liners, the allied powers once Russia and then the USA crackpot ideas very often and his caution about the eventual success of the Comet 4, and the finally entered the fray and understands the when to open a second front in France helped to world speed and altitude records. shifting relationships between Stalin, Roosevelt insure that sufficient men and material were and Churchill. He sees Stalin as the monster he assembled to ensure success when it did take was and Roosevelt as an essentially chilly and place in June 1944. unsympathetic character interested only in pur - suing American national interests. Churchill Leadership in Action What stands out is Churchill’s resilience and sin - knew full well that Britain could never win the war gle mindedness. He knew what Roosevelt and alone and assiduously courted the Americans Finest Years: Stalin were really like and also that the British from the outset. It was a long and troubled rela - Empire was in a very weak position. It never Churchill as tionship however “special” it might strive to be. stopped him from doing what he had to do to let Warlord The Americans wanted cash on the nail for any Britain survive. He might have to curry favour Max Hastings aid and felt entirely free to criticise the Brits for and accept slights but that mattered nothing so Faber & Faber their lack of martial success. In this area long as Nazism was defeated. Churchill was Hardback Hastings returns to a theme which informs his never without enemies at home even during his Price £20.00 other books about the war. In many ways the most embattled or triumphant moments but peo - British Army’s performance was inferior to that of ple generally realised that here was the man for ax Hastings the Americans. Lack of material and war weari - the job. Churchill’s clear sightedness about the has written a ness can account for a good deal, particularly by need for victory was matched by an equal splendid trib - the stage that the Americans entered the fight in M refusal to devote any time to considering what ute to the man who led the west, but man for man the Brits were just not needed to be done domestically after victory was the Empire through the as aggressive as the Yanks. Hastings gives achieved. He wanted to preserve the Empire darkest hours of the Second World War. In many credit to the RAF and rates the Royal Navy’s and fend off Soviet ambitions in Europe but was ways it forms a trilogy with his two equally performance very highly (apart from its carrier disinterested in what to make of an exhausted weighty books on the end of the war in the west operations) but there is no disguising that when and bankrupt – though victorious – country. The (“Armageddon”) and the east (“Nemesis”). All it came to real fighting and dying it was largely populace at large knew that too and he was three have an almost superhuman grasp of done by the Russians. Churchill was usually dis - swept from power in the General Election three telling details and incident combined with the satisfied with his commanders, sometimes weeks before VJ Day. Stalin was astonished. ability to depict great matters on the broadest of unreasonably so and interfered terribly but he How could they arrange these things so badly canvases. It cannot have hindered him in that he did care. Hardly anyone had his fighting spirit under capitalism? clearly loves his subject very much. and some of the ones, who had, like Wingate, were too barking mad to be useful in war but for Finally Churchill was a wonderful personality, Churchill was the very embodiment of the saying real stalwarts like Brooke, Slim, Cunningham, patrician and dismissive of even the white “cometh the hour, cometh the man”. Not in truth Tedder and Portal it was galling to be constantly dominions let alone the natives of the empire a very successful politician or in any sense a asked for more activity. Of course Churchill that meant so much to him; he was capable of party man his career seemed largely to have remained wedded to side shows throughout the pity even for the Germans when they were ended by the thirties. He had occupied great war which led to such fiascos as the Aegean defeated. He was also unstoppably witty. With offices of state, changed parties, been involved campaign and annoyed his allies as well as his Churchill at the helm the ship of state might be with the disaster of the Dardanelles and briefly generals. Fortunately Churchill really did believe sorely battered but she would stay afloat and commanded a battalion on the western front fol - himself to be the servant of his country and not she would never surrender.

47 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

Exhibitions: Cézanne’s Card Players

The Courtauld Gallery Dr Peter Robinson

Cézanne’s card players sit together, yet in the isolation of their own private worlds of concentration. Except that they never sat together. The effect of this series of iconic paintings was achieved by several studies of individual farm workers on Cézanne’s family estate in Aix-en-Provence which were then tried out in various group combi - nations.

This mini-exhibition, Cézanne’s Card Players, which was at The Courtauld Gallery in London till January, combined multiples versions of The Card Players paintings. Preparatory oil sketches, water - colours and drawings show that these works, which create a sense of realism and spontaneity, are actually a product of a highly worked process of underdrawings and revisions.

But why does the artist, in whatever medi - um, often become obsessed with a particu - lar subject; engaging in studies over sever - al years incorporating different perspec - tives, combinations and techniques? What is the relationship between this subject and the psyche of the artist? What is being worked out in these repetitions? The Card Players, c. 1890-92; oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Van Gogh painted multiple versions of radi - ant sunflowers, Cézanne found inspiration in a sombre group of card players. A rich man, yet in these workers playing cards he found an essence, a gravitas, absorption and dignity. “I love above all else the appearance of people who have grown old without breaking with old customs” he said.

A friend of the novelist Emile Zola, in these studies Cézanne shares a naturalist approach in depicting the harsh yet digni - fied, stoic lives of working people. The apparent realism is filtered through a style seemingly as coarse and weathered as his subjects.

These paintings and studies were reunited from international galleries to complement The Courtauld’s collection and reveal the gestation and experiment that can go into what may appear to be a spontaneous work of art. Every picture in this exhibition tells this story vividly, helping to show the creative process.

The Card Players, 1890-92; oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

48 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

The Smoker, c. 1891; oil on canvas, Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

49 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

Life, Legend, Landscape: Victorian drawings and watercolours. The Courtauld Gallery, London 17 February - 15 May 2011 Dr Peter Robinson

Hidden Treasures What museums and galleries let us see is often but a fraction of their collection. Why don't the publically funded institutions rotate their collection more often so that those who contribute to their upkeep may see them, at least once in their lifetime? In the absence of this level of access perhaps an exhibition like this is the next best thing. Online access seems the fastest and most work - able option to democratisation, but of course it can never be a sub - stitute for the visceral experience of seeing the original work of art. The Courtauld Gallery, part of the University of London, has received a gift from the International Music and Arts Foundation to build on its more recent attempt to allow some of the contents of its vaults of over 7,000 drawings and watercolours a public view - ing, some for the first time.

This is a miscellany of Victorian drawings and watercolours, the exhibition's catchall title "Life, Legend, Landscape" indicating its catholicity. The fine catalogue edited by Joanna Selbourne with many supporting pertinent articles(footnoted details of these stu - dents and other writers would have been appreciated) makes this work both an artistic and scholarly achievement by one of the top rated arts research institutions worldwide. It reveals a richness of lesser known works by well and lesser known artists across the long Victorian period in the more seldom seen mediums of draw - ing and watercolour. Tate Britain’s exhibition “Watercolour” (until 21 August) also highlights the diverse uses of the medium.

Millais, a few years ago the subject of a spectacular exhibition at Tate Britain, is the centre of the Courtauld's promotion of this exhi - bition. While it may seem that we have seen the best of the Pre- John Everett Millais (1829-1896), The Parting of Ulysses, c.1862 Raphaelite Brotherhood in a series of detailed exhibitions in recent Watercolour and gouache on paper 118 x 103 mm years, The Parting of Ulysses (c. 1862), a small watercolour ( pic - © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London tured top left ) copied from a woodcut engraving, is an example of hidden PRB treasure. It's a roughly sketched, azure meeting of sea, land and night sky, combin - ing watercolour and gouache, showing the mythical parting of Circe and Ulysses. It's a pairing painted by John William Waterhouse, recently exhibited at the Royal Academy's study of his work in terms of a modern Pre-Raphaelite, and not such a poignant romantic pairing as the Millais work suggests, which is more a case of art for art's, rather than mythic reality's, sake.

A recent arrival at The Courtauld Gallery after being lost for many years, is Frederick Walker's The Old Farm Garden (1871) ( pic - tured left ). Not surprisingly, the art critic, John Ruskin admired this work, no doubt because of its truth to nature approach, investigated in another recent Tate Britain PRB exhibition, in the detail of the flowers and had Walker not died at just 35 years old he would surely have become better Frederick Walker (1840-1875), The Old Farm Garden, 1871 known. The placing of the figure in the Watercolour and gouache over graphite on paper, 273 x 405 mm extreme left of the picture, the painting © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

50 arts & leisure eBritain Spring 2011

technique of the diaphanous dress and deft suggestion of pending movement of figure and cat is sensitive and innovative. As Millais noted the subjective perspective of the painter is critical in aesthet - ic appreciation. He wrote to Charles Collins, the painter and younger brother of the novelist, Wilkie Collins in 1855, "nature is too variable in itself to give more than a transient feeling of pleas - ure. Aspect, is the great secret. The prospect of the aspect" (Millais’ italics). It is Walker's unusual composition of this scene with its gash of a path dividing human/animal and the vegetative which takes it beyond the confines of this, at first sight, conven - tional, traditional scene.

As its title suggests the exhibition includes life studies, land - scapes, genre scenes and subjects from literature and legend. It features works by some of the major artists of the age, from Turner (pictured ), William Etty and Edwin Landseer, to other Pre- Raphaelites such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti ( pictured ), and works of the fin de siècle from Whistler to Aubrey Beardsley. Entrance is £6 for adults, concessions £4-50. Free admission for under 18s, full-time UK students and unwaged. Free entrance on Mondays, 1000-1400 except public holidays.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Study for Venus Verticordia, c.1863-64 Graphite on paper, 508 x 369 mm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

Daniel Maclise (1806-1870) Enid and Geraint: Illustration to Tennyson's 'Idylls of the King', c.1860 Pen and ink over graphite on paper, 200 x 250 mm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) Brunnen, Lake Lucerne, c.1843-44 Watercolour and graphite on paper, 240 x 297 mm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

William Henry Hunt (1790-1864) Chaffinch Nest and May Blossom, c.1845 Watercolour on paper, 241 x 375 mm © The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London

51 research eBritain Spring 2011

The U.A.E. in the Global Satellite Training Dynamic

Martin Jarrold Operator-Supported GVF Training Delivery and commercial and government enterpris - Chief of International Programme Development, GVF & Certification Advantage’. es worldwide. ([email protected]) (www.gvf.org) I had the distinct pleasure of acting as Headquartered in London, GVF is an inde - Chairman of this Summit and was very pendent, non-partisan and non-profit Mazen Nassar pleased to have such a distinguished indi - organisation with 230+ members from CEO, MENANets ([email protected]) vidual as the Dubai/Beirut-based Mazen more than 100 countries. Its broad-based (www.menanets.com) Nassar, CEO of MenaNets, on the pro - membership represents every major world gramme to discuss the vital role that GVF – region and every sector of the satellite In March 2010 at the Global VSAT[1] at the global level – and he – on the region - industry, including fixed and mobile satellite Forum (GVF) Middle East and North al level – has played, and continues to play, operators, satellite network operators, tele - African regional satellite communications in addressing the vital issue of satellite sig - ports, satellite earth station manufacturers, summit entitled The MENA nal interference mitigation strategies. system integrators, value added and Communications ‘Knowledge Exchange’: enhanced service providers, telecom carri - Development Dynamics in the Broadband I: The GVF ers, consultants, law firms, and users. Satellite & Hybrid Wireless Applications GVF is the international satellite industry’s Market – held during the CABSAT/Satellite non-profit association. Founded in 1997, Since its foundation, GVF has included MENA 2010 exhibition in Dubai – a Middle the Forum is the single and unified voice of amongst its portfolio of activities the devel - East-based GVF representative presented the global satellite industry, bringing opment of a range of capacity-building pro - on the topic of the ‘Successful Deployment together organisations engaged in the grammes to serve the entire spectrum of of Satellite Networking Technology in delivery of advanced broadband and nar - communications stakeholders worldwide. MENA: Leveraging off the Satellite rowband satellite services to consumers, Amongst these programmes GVF has, either directly or in collaboration with other

Figure 1: GVF VSAT Training Certification Programme – Overview of Course Structure. Detailed information is available at http://gvf.coursehost.com

52 research eBritain Spring 2011

entities, developed a range of offerings, each of which aims to facilitate the commu - nications community’s provision, use of, and/or regulation of, satellite-based com - munications solutions.

II: The GVF VSAT Installation & Maintenance Training Certification Programme One such offering is GVF’s running of the satellite industry's global VSAT Installation & Maintenance Training Certification Programme which won a ‘Best Skills Developer Award’ at the SatCom Africa Conference in Johannesburg in 2009, and has also been cited in the Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) ‘Industry Innovator’ awards.

The GVF VSAT Installation & Maintenance Training Certification Programme is a series of highly interactive, 3-D animated, simulator-driven courses provided online, covering topics beginning with satellite basics, progressing to installation tech - niques to mitigate uplink interference, VSAT fundamentals, and practical VSAT installation techniques. The certification process includes a hands-on-skills-test (HOST) for Basic and Advanced certifica - tion, and there is also a series of manufac - turer specific ‘specialist’ certifications for certain specific VSAT terminal equipment from particular manufacturers/vendors.

Regular updates on the continuing roll-out of GVF training resources are provided through the online publication, the GVF Training Newsletter, which is produced in partnership with its training partner-organi - sation, SatProf. A recent edition of the newsletter cited the endorsement of GVF installation and maintenance training by Figure 2: Front page of one of the GVF VSAT Training Certification Programme information brochures – the Satellite Operators Interference GVF510 ‘Core Skills for VSAT Installers’ Initiative, the membership of which organi - sation currently comprises 19 of the world’s data amongst its satellite operator mem - bleshooting of specific equipment types via satellite operating companies. bers. The third aspect is the GVF VSAT Specialist Certifications, the GVF Installation & Maintenance Training Certification Programme provides training III: The Satellite Operators Interference Certification Programme. for the knowledge and skills needed to be Initiative successful in the VSAT industry. The Satellite Operators Interference Installation by inadequately trained techni - Initiative has the objective of controlling the cians is one of the main causes of interfer - Details of the courses available, and the serious problem of satellite uplink signals ence identified by the Satellite Operators processes and steps required to achieve interference. In recent years, the satellite Interference Initiative. GVF has responded GVF certification are fully detailed at the communications industry has experienced by enhancing the established VSAT GVF/SatProf training portal at an escalation of signal interference, Installer Training Programme to focus even http://gvf.coursehost.com, but the three adversely affecting broadcast and telecom - more strongly on the skills necessary to levels of certification can be quickly sum - munication services, and the Initiative has avoid accidental generation of adjacent- marised as follows: launched a multiple front campaign to com - satellite, cross-pol, and re-radiation inter - bat this trend. ference. • GVF Basic VSAT Installation Certification. Basic skills that all VSAT installers must One of these fronts is a carrier ID working Whether it is mitigating uplink interference have to help prevent interference. forum to pursue industry implementation of via the Basic Certification, providing solid Requires completion of online course carrier ID: a means to identify interfering knowledge and skills in VSAT installation, GVF510 and the formal GVF Hands-On- signals. The second aspect is the formation maintenance, and troubleshooting via the Skills-Test. of the Space Data Association to facilitate Advanced Certification, or gaining skills for collecting and sharing interference event installation, maintenance, and trou -

53 research eBritain Spring 2011

• GVF Advanced VSAT Installation and events calendar – CABSAT/Satellite MENA V: Installation & Maintenance Training Maintenance Certification. Knowledge and GITEX. Tens of thousands attend Delivery and theory for all expert VSAT field tech - these exhibitions, and GVF/MenaNets pro - As shown in the illustration at Figure 1, in nicians. Requires completion of online vides opportunities for trainees to take order to progress through to their GVF courses GVF510, GVF520, GVF521, and advantage of spending one or two extra Certification, all students must successfully the formal GVF Hands-On-Skills-Test. days in the city to complete the hands-on- complete the hands-on-skills-test (HOST). skills-test (HOST) element of their training. The HOST comes at the end of the • GVF Speciality Certifications. Requires trainee’s period of study of the series of GVF Advanced Certification plus comple - interactive, 3-D animated, simulator-driven tion of one of the online specialty courses, exercises that are provided online through such as iDirect (course GVF503i), or the aforementioned GVF/SatProf training Hughes (course GVF503H). portal at http://gvf.coursehost.com. The period of time which each student devotes Much more information is centrally located to their study period is essentially under within the training portal, including details their own control, though there is a guide - of the Andrew Werth Scholarship line study period-duration indicated for Programme for trainees from developing each course (see Figure 2) within the train - countries – defined as those nations classi - ing programme. fied as Least Developed Countries by the UN (http://www.un.org/ohrlls/), or as those Typically at the MenaNets facilities, each classified by the World session is kept to a Bank (http://web.world - maximum of 15 to 20 bank.org/) with economies trainees and is in the low income, low-mid - approached with a flexi - dle income, IDA, or HIPC bility that allows for one groups – as well as details or more days training on how to become a GVF (see Figure 3). This Certified Examiner. allows the trainees to benefit from their train - IV: GVF Training in the ing according to their United Arab Emirates own needs. The training Mazen Nassar is Chief appeals to individuals with a Executive Officer of MenaNets range of roles within their own with offices in Beirut, Lebanon, organisations. Trainee installers as well as in Dubai. He serves get to see and use the different as the GVF’s Master Installation types of satellite communica - Trainer for the MENA region, tions hardware; and, managers and MenaNets operates pan- attend to focus on what the regional training delivery on Figure 3: Scenes from GVF installer training at the hardware looks like, how it is behalf of GVF throughout the region and MenaNets facility in Dubai packed, how long it takes to install, and beyond, sometimes with the additional what planning is needed to successfully assistance of other GVF personnel and Other training sessions are also scheduled undertake equipment installation projects. training instructors. throughout the year to provide more flexi - Additionally, company financial personnel bility for those who are not able to attend sometimes participate to understand the MenaNets is a system integrator providing during the exhibitions, and other sessions need for customer acceptance test and sig - installation and networking services over are scheduled to meet the demand or the natures, safety procedures, documentation satellite, and is also the authorised distrib - timing-requirements of trainees even if needs, spectrum analyzer features and utor/reseller for a range of VSAT satellite there are only relatively few registrants. cost, hardware differences and how to equipment manufacturers, including ASC avoid equipment shipment errors and other Signal, Skyware Global, iDirect, Anacom The Dubai facility has grown to host many unnecessary, and costly, mistakes. Inc., Paradise Communications, and oth - trainees from various satellite communica - ers, covering hardware products including tions companies, and from the non-govern - GVF, in partnership with MenaNets, works modems, dishes (1.2 metres to 2.4 ment organisation (NGO) sector, across a successfully to achieve the objective of metres), feeds, LNBs, BUCs, filters, con - region spanning from Afghanistan to providing the VSAT industry with a simple, nectors, adaptors, and tools, etc. Morocco and from Iraq to all over the reliable, comprehensive, achievable, and African continent. In addition to the open accessible training certification that leads GVF training in Dubai has grown over the sessions described above, private dedicat - to improved quality of service delivery, years to include a small training facility ed training HOST sessions have been improved savings, safe professional prac - within the city for small groups, and anoth - designed for organisations like the World tices, and, not least, more reliable satellite er training site suitable for up to 40 trainees Food Programme in Dubai, Orascom communications. which is located at the MenaNets ware - Telecom in Algeria, Alkan in Egypt, house in the Jebel Ali free zone. Together NigComSat in Nigeria, etc. These organi - Notes: these facilities afford generous capacity to sations had a training requirement for mul - 1. VSAT is the acronym for very small aperture hold training sessions at various times tiple trainees and the HOST session was in terminal throughout the year, including immediately each case designed to meet their needs in after two of the most important telecommu - their respective countries/locations. nications-related exhibitions in the Dubai

54 research eBritain Spring 2011

A Study of the Underlying Technologies and Design Principles of Mobile Commerce

Jameel A Qadri bile has a distinct connotation which is sup - in full duplex mode. Commercial cellular Lecturer ported by altogether different technology phone networks took off in the 1980s. The British Institute of Technology & Ecommerce, London, UK than what is used in wireless communica - same decade saw exponential growth of gi - tion. Müller-Veerse described m-commerce ant mobile pioneering companies like Nokia, Dr M Farmer as “any transaction with a monetary value Ericsson and Motorola. However, first gen - Director British Institute of Technology & Ecommerce, London, UK that is conducted via a mobile telecommuni - eration 1G and second generation 2G net - cations network”. The mode of communica - works operated with inadequate data trans - M T Banday tion is very important as it has direct conse - fer speed to access web links from the Associate Professor quences on 1) the communication protocols mobile phone. 2.5G systems based on ei - Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Technol - 2) changes in the web design and accessi - ther Cellular Digital Packet data (CDPD) or ogy, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India bility 3) the display of information 4) quality General packet radio service (GPRS) en - Abstract of multimedia 5) the availability of bandwidth hanced the data rate up to 28.8 kbps. Still Mobile commerce, also known as m-com - 6) connection stability and 7) convenience; less than broadband but this data transfer merce, is very similar to electronic com - and indirect consequences on 1) Software rate made it possible to access the web merce or e-commerce in many respects. support, 2) microprocessor capability 3) from mobile phones. 3G technologies like However, in many other respects the two are memory size 4) full quite different. M-commerce includes a use of operating number of underlying technologies and con - systems and 5) cepts like communication technology, web power consump - technology and growth in mobile communi - tion. Mobile de - cation in terms of connection speed and the vices, including device capabilities. In this article we will mobile phones, present an overview of these technologies pagers, Family Ra - and concepts that over time made m-com - dio Service and merce possible. some satellite phones, are de - Key Words: M-commerce, Mobile Commu - signed for the situ - nication, Communication Protocols, Design ations where the Strategy handset is ex - Fig 1. Google Ngram Viewer result for the phrase “Mobile Phones” pected to be in mo - Introduction tion during use It is very difficult to estimate the speed at (Gow & Smith, 2006). M-commerce, as Universal Mobile Telecommunications Sys - which technology is progressing, but, how - such, means to carry out financial transac - tem (UMTS), High Speed Packet Access ever fast or slow the progress, the growth of tions anytime anywhere using handsets (HSPA), Worldwide Interoperability for Mi - technology is gradual except at the times working on mobile communication system crowave Access (WiMAX) and Long Term when some radical invention or discovery is based on cellular technology. Evolution (LTE) are able to provide high made. M-commerce does not fall in the cat - speed mobile data service termed as mobile egory of a radical invention and therefore its Cellular technology broadband. The quality of the mobile broad - progress can be traced phase by phase. Cellular networks are based on small radio band is gauged by its coverage, capacity Google’s Ngram viewer locates 1980 as the coverage zones known as ‘cells’ allowing and the speed. According to the BBC there time which marked a sharp growth in the the system to use same frequency in non- are more than 5 billion mobile connections in phrase “mobile phones”. We will choose adjacent cells in variety of cluster patterns. the world (July 2010), out of which 500 mil - 1980 as our anchor year to explore the de - This design was a breakthrough which made lion users use 3G according to website GSM velopment of m-commerce. M-commerce is communication mobile and pervasive. One Arena. defined by Nigel and Phillips as the intercon - of the most important technological chal - nection of portable computing technologies lenges was to overcome the connection Mobile devices and the wireless telecommunications net - breaks while moving from one cell to another Several facts are responsible for the kind of working environments necessary to provide cell where the signal strength becomes popularity mobile phones enjoy today. One location independent connectivity within the weak and overlapping. The connectivity was of the outstanding achievements is the evo - business information system domain (Nigel, maintained by a very important cellular net - lution of the mobile devices in terms of Elliot, 2004). At this point a minimum of one work design called hand-off. The hand-off is miniaturization. Early mobile phones which more definition is required to clear the con - the process that permits a mobile customer could not be commercialized were as heavy cept of term ‘mobile’ in m-commerce. Al - to move between radio cells without losing as 16 kgs. The size of the phone restricted though m-commerce is the commerce car - connection (Gow & Smith, 2006). That com - their portability and hence mobility. The Mo - ried out in a wireless environment, but it pleted the fundamental design of the cellu - torola Dyna-TAC 8000X , known as the should not be confused with e-commerce lar networks. The user was now able to ‘brick’ was the first handheld cellular phone. conducted in wireless mode. The term mo - make or receive calls anywhere and anytime It weighed over 1 kilogram, had one colour

56 research eBritain Spring 2011

LED display and memory to store 30 tele - powerful features are incorporated in the can effectively communicate with one an - phone numbers. By the mid 1990s the mo - mobile devices. Screen resolution and other in a wireless environment. Wap archi - bile became as small as practically possible. graphic support is becoming comparable tecture sits on the underlying communication The keypad and display limited any more re - with that of laptops or desktops. Software technologies like GSM, GPRS, CDMA, duction in size. At this point size was no support is very impressive as well in modern PDC, TDMA, etc. The five layers of the WAP longer the priority. Mobile phones with ex - phones. Documents To Go enable the user make it possible to access data on the Inter - tended features came into the market. to view, edit and create Microsoft Word, Ex - net. The WAP architecture was developed to 1996, Nokia introduced the Communicator, cel and PowerPoint files. Adobe PDF files overcome the disadvantages of the mobile a GSM mobile phone and handheld com - can also be viewed on Android-powered phones seen as compared to desktop or puter. It had a QWERTY keyboard and built smart phone. laptop computers. In order to enhance the in word processing and calendar programs web experience on mobile phones the dis - (Farley, 2005). At the present time there are Communication Protocols and software advantages like slower Internet speed, over 5000 handset types available (Cart - support smaller display size, reduced capability to man, Ting, 2009). Mobile devices have The wired and wireless communication sys - display rich multimedia, low quality connec - evolved into powerful convergent devices tems are governed by TCP/IP network archi - tivity, and cost of accessing the Internet are

with better processor capability, sharper tecture. TCP/IP architecture make end to the key areas that WAP architecture takes screen resolution, better colour display and end communication possible. The commu - care of. The protocol stack defined in WAP better overall features (Cartman, Ting, nicating machines (sender and receiver ma - architecture works on the design that opti - 2009). Although Nokia 1100 and other basic chines) are assumed to be either fixed or mises the communication resources avail - models are still popular with first time buy - moving within a single network connection able to the mobile user. For example, web - ers in third world countries and far flung ar - making it logically stationary with respect to site design is simpler with less multimedia eas of developing countries smart phones network movements. Hypertext Transfer features occupying less device memory and from Blackberry and iPhone are fast grab - Protocol (HTTP) is application level protocol less bandwidth when downloaded. Accord - bing the market share in developed coun - responsible to fetch web pages from the ing to the white paper published by WAP fo - tries. In most of the third world and develop - web servers. In contrast, in mobile commu - rum, HTTP/TCP/IP use 17 packets to ing countries people still use GSM and nication WAP architecture is used. WAP process a stock quote query which is 65% therefore need for smart phones is less, stands for wireless application protocol. overhead whereas WSP/WTP/UDP use only however, in North America and Europe WAP is not a single protocol but a complete 7 packets for the same job resulting in only where mobile penetration is high with 3G or layered architecture. The layers are embed - 17% overhead(WAPForum, 2000). The later technology, smart phones with in-built ded in both server side technology and the WAP specification defines a microbrowser micro-browsers are in great demand. More client side technology so that the two parts that is the ultimate thin client, able to fit in a

57 research eBritain Spring 2011

limited amount of memory in the handheld device. The use of proxy technology and compression in the network interface re - duces the processing load at the handheld device so that an inexpensive CPU can be used in the handset. This further helps to re - duce power consumption and extends bat - tery life, meeting the needs of both handset manufacturers and wireless subscribers. (WAPForum, 2000).

Wireless markup language WML is used to develop the websites for mobile phones. WML uses a different design procedure in which web pages are designed as a deck of cards which can be downloaded with a sin - gle request on to the device and then can be navigated from the memory rather than mak - ing fresh requests. This makes the web nav - igation faster and saves bandwidth as well. xHTML,a code sub-set of XML, and WML are converging technologies for the web de - velopment. Web content developed using xHTML can be viewed both via web browsers on PCs or laptops and WAP en - abled mobile devices. Among other tech - nologies used to develop web content for mobile phones, Sun Microsystems’ J2ME- java 2 Micro Edition-is very popular among the developers.

Mobile websites Apart from other bottleneck problems like data transfer rate, memory size and micro - processor capability, one of the biggest chal - lenges for the mobile medium (website or application) is small screen size. The design concepts for PC based medium and mobile based medium therefore differ. It is reported in the literature that designers stress the need of redesigning rather than miniaturiz - ing the websites designed for PC and lap - tops. W3C has come up with the guidelines to be used in the design of mobile sites keeping in view the limitations of the mobile environment. Many recommendations are given for content control, clarity of the infor - mation and the navigation. Control on the use of images is essential for mobile sites. In PC-based websites a number of multime - dia elements less relevant to the information presented on the web pages can be in - cluded, e.g. background images, button im - ages, banners and flash elements. In mobile sites such elements can easily be avoided. Clarity of the navigation elements is also very important. Most of the page’s content should be displayed on loading the page with contrasted navigation links. Structure of the page should remain consistent, except in the cases where the context of the given page changes. Good colour contrast is maintained and blue and purple font colours are used only for hyperlinks. A number of other strategies for mobile interactive de - sign process are reported in literature. The aim of the design strategies is to improve the

58 research eBritain Spring 2011

user experience when accessing the web Glossary from mobile devices. 1G,2G,2.5G,3G First, second, between second and third and third generations of Conclusion mobile communication Mobile Commerce is still in its infancy, how - ever, as it is not a completely a new concept CDMA Code Division Multiple Access its growth is envisaged to be huge in the coming years. The users are already famil - CDPD Cellular Digital Packet Data iar with the use of traditional web and online financial transactions. Mobile commerce is a CPU Central Processing Unit result of gradual and continuous develop - ment of communication technology. This pa - GPRS General Packet Radio Service per provided an integrated view of different technologies responsible for m-commerce to GSM Global System for Mobile Communication take place. The article paves the way for fur - ther research in different areas of m-com - merce. HSPA High Speed Packet Access

HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol References J2ME Java 2 Micro Edition 1. BBC [online]. (2010) [Accessed 10 Febru - ary 2011]. Available from: LED Light Emitting Diode

2. David J Myers (2004). Mobile Video Te - LTE Long Term Evolution lephony. Ist. ed. United States of America: McGraw- Hill. PC Personal Computer

3. Ernst & Young, "Global Online Retailing: PDC Personal Digital Cellular An Ernst & Young Special Report," Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, http://www.ey.com/global/vault.nsf/US/2001_ PDF Portable Document Format Retail_Study/$file/GOR.pdf TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol 4. G. Elliot, N. Phillips (2004). Mobile Com - merce and wireless Computing System. Ist. ed. England: Pearson Education Limited. TDMA Time Division Multiple Access

5. G.A Gow, R.K. Smith (2006). Mobile and UDP User Datagram Protocol wireless Communication. Ist. ed. England: McGraw -Hill Education. UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications System 6. GSM Arena [online]. (2010) [Accessed 10 February 2011]. Available from: W3C World Wide Web Consortium http://www.gsmarena.com/the_number_of_3 g_customers_worldwide_hits_500_million_- WAP Wireless Application Protocol news-1413.php

7. Henderson, R., D. Rickwood, and P. WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access Roberts, "Beta Test of An Electronic Super - market," Interacting with Computers, Vol. WML Wireless Markup Language 10:385-399, 1998.

8. Ivo salmre (2005). Writing Mobile Code. WTP Wireless Transmission Protocol Ist. ed. United States of America: Pearson Education. xHTML eXtensible HyperText Markup Language

9. J. Cartman, R. Ting (2009). Strategic Mo - bile Design: Creating Engagaing Experi - ences. Ist. ed. United States of America: New Riders.

10. Müller-Veerse, F., 2000, Mobile Com - merce Report, World Wide Web: http://www.dad.be/library/pdf/durlacher1.pdf

11. T. F arley, 2005, “Mobile telephone histo - ry” Telektronikk 3/4.2005 p-32

12. WAP Forum (2000). Wireless Internet To - day.

59 research eBritain Spring 2011

A study on transaction scheduling in a real-time distributed system

Y Jayanta Singh I. INTRODUCTION in multiple phases, between the participat - College of Information Technology, ing sites where the distributed transaction 7th October University, Misurata, Libya A real time distributed computing has het - executed. Several log records are generat - [email protected] erogeneously networked computers to ed to make permanent changed to the data solve a single problem. If a transaction disk, demanding some more transaction Prof Hasan Al-Saedy runs across two sites, it may commit at one execution time [Lampson and Lomet93, British Institute of Technology and E-Commerce site and may failure at another site, leading Nystrom and Nolin04, Ramamritham et London, UK [email protected] to an inconsistent transaction. Two-phase al’04]. Proper scheduling of transactions commit protocol is most widely used to and management of its execution time are S C Mehrotra solve these problems [Silberschatz02]. To important factors in designing such sys - Dept of Information Technology and Computer Sc, ensure transaction atomicity, commit proto - tems. Dr. B.A.Marathwada University, Aurangabad, India cols are implemented in distributed data - [email protected] base system. A uniform commitment is Transactions processing in any database guarantee by a commit protocol in a distrib - systems can have real time constraints. Abstract: uted transaction execution to ensure that The scheduling transactions with deadlines The transaction in a real time database all the participating sites agree on a final on a single processor memory resident system has deadlines to process the outcome. Result may be either a commit or database system have been developed an abort condition. and evaluated the scheduling through sim - workloads. Many transaction complex - ulation [Robert et al’92]. A real time data - ities are there in handling concurrency In a real time database system the transac - base system is a Transaction processing control and database recovery in dis - tion processing system that is designed to system that designed to handle workloads tributed database systems. And com - handle workloads where transactions have where transactions have complete dead - plexity increase in real time applica - complete deadlines. Many real time data - lines. A centralized timed Two-phase tions by placing deadlines on the base applications in areas of communica - Commit protocol has been designed where response time of the database system tion system and military systems are dis - the fate of a transaction is guaranteed to be and transactions processing. Such a tributed in nature. To ensure transaction known to all the participants of the transac - system needs to process Transactions atomicity, commit protocol are implement - tion by a deadline [Davidson et al’89]. In ed in distributed database system. This case of faults, it is not possible to provide before these deadlines expired. The paper shows report of study the perform - such guarantee. Real actions such as performances depend on many factors ance implications of supporting transaction Firing a weapon or dispensing cash may such as traffic workloads, database atomicity in a real time distributed database not be compensatable at all [Levy et al’91]. system architecture, underlying system with the help of simulation. Proper scheduling of transactions and processors, disks speeds, and variety Experimental performances of transaction management of its execution time are the of operating conditions. A series of scheduling under variety of workloads and important factors in designing such sys - simulation study have been performed different system configuration are evaluat - tems. In such a database, the performance to analyze the performance under dif - ed through this simulation. of the commit protocol is usually measured ferent transaction scheduling condition in terms of number of Transactions that The section II describes the concept of a complete before their deadlines. The trans - such as different workloads, different real time database system. In section III, action that miss their deadlines before the environments, varying file selection detail simulation model and simulation completion of processing are just killed or time, and varying arrival rate. The parameters are given. The detail experi - aborted and discarded from the system scheduling of data accesses are done ment results and analysis are given in sec - without being executed to completion in order to meet their deadlines and to tion IV. The overall conclusions are dis - [Jayant et al’92]. minimize the number of transactions cussed in section V. that missed deadlines. A new III. SIMULATION DETAILS approach “firm randomization” method II. REAL TIME DATABASE CONCEPT is introduced to help to distribute work - A.Simulation model Database researchers have proposed vari - The study follows real time processing loads to all sites uniformly. eties of commit protocols like Two phase model [Jayant et al’92] and transaction pro - commit [Gray’78, Mohan et al.’86], Nested cessing addressing timeliness [Han’03]. Keywords- Transaction scheduling, two phase commit [Gray’78], Presumed Such model consists of a database that is Real time system, deadlines, firm ran - commit [Lampson and Lomet93] and distributed in a non-replicated manner, domization, throughput. Presume abort [Mohan et al.’86], over all the available sites (say 8 sites in Broadcast Two phase commit [Oszu and this study) connected by a network [Jayant Valduriez’91], Three phase commit [Oszu et al’96,90,91]. In the actual model, each of and Valduriez’91, Kohler’81] etc. These sites has six components: (i) a source: gen - require exchanges of multiple messages, erate transactions, (ii) a transaction man -

60 research eBritain Spring 2011

Resource Manager • Disk/CPU • File o Service Transactions Transaction Manager Done

Source • Load Master/Cohort Sink Create • Read/Write Statistics Transaction Collection ’ • Abort/Commit ’ o

CC Manager

Network Manager

Figure 1. Real time distributed database model. ager: models the execution behavior of the a sequence of read and writes requests to B. Execution model and Simulation transaction, (iii) a concurrency control man - files that are stored at its sites. A transac - Parameters ager: implements the concurrency control tion has one cohort at each site where it The execution model is discussed below. A algorithm, (iv) a resource manager: models needs to access data. common model of a distributed transaction the physical resources, (v) a recovery man - is that there is one process, called as ager: implements the details commit proto - To choose the execution sites for a trans - Master, which is executed at the site where col and (vi) a sink: collects statistics on the action’s cohorts, the decision rule is: if a file the transaction is submitted, and a set of completed transactions. A network manag - is present at the originating site, use the processes, called Cohorts, which executes er models the behavior of the communica - copy there; otherwise, choose uniformly on behalf of the transaction at these vari - tions network. The study is concentrated in from among the sites that have remote ous sites that are accessed by the transac - managing the transaction scheduling under copies of the files. The transaction manag - tion. In other words, each transaction has a different workloads. In this study, the part of er also models the details of the commit master process that runs at its site of origi - concurrency control is not fully implement - and abort protocols. nation. The master process in turn sets up ed. The modified model is shown in Fig 1. a collection of cohort’s processes to per - The study has concentrated to minimized (iii) The concurrency control manager: form the actual processing involved in run - numbers of the percentage of miss trans - It deals with the implementation of the con - ning the transaction. When cohort finishes actions in order to optimize the atomicity currency control algorithms. In this study, executing its portion of a query, it sends an problem in a distributed database system. this module is not fully implemented. The execution complete message to the mas - The definition of the components of the effect of this is dependent on algorithm that ter. When the master received such a mes - model is given above. chooses during designing the system. sage from each cohort, it starts its execu - tion process. (i) The source: (iv) The resource manager: This component is responsible for generat - The resource manager models the physical When a transaction is initiated, the set of ing the workloads for a site. The workloads resources like CPU, Disk, and files etc for files and data items that, it will access are are characterized in terms of files that they writing to or accessing data or messages chosen by the source. The master is then access and number of pages that they from them. loaded at its originating site and initiates access and also update of a file. the first phase of the protocol by sending (v) The sink: PREPARE (to commit) messages in paral - (ii) The transaction manager: The sink deals for collection of statistics on lel to all the cohorts. Each cohort that is The transaction manager is responsible for the completed transactions. ready to commit, first force-writes a pre - accepting transaction from the source and pared log record to its local stable storage modeling their execution. This deals with (vi)The Network Manager: and then sends a YES vote to the master. the execution behavior of the transaction. The network manager encapsulates the Each transaction in the workload has a model of the communications network. It is At this stage, the cohort has entered a pre - general structure consist of a master assuming a local area network system, pared state wherein it cannot unilaterally process and a number of cohorts. The where the actual time on the wire for mes - commit or abort the transaction but has to master resides at the sites where the trans - sages is negligible wait for final decision from the master. On action was submitted. Each cohort makes . other hand, each cohort that decides to

61 research eBritain Spring 2011

abort force-writes an abort log record and TABLE 1. SIMULATION PARAMETERS sends a NO vote to the master. Since a NO vote acts like a veto, cohort is permitted unilaterally abort the transaction without Parameters Description waiting for a response from the master. NumSites or Selectfile Number of sites in the Database After the master receives the votes from all the cohorts, it initiates the second phase of Dbsize Number of pages in the Database the protocol. If all the votes are YES, it moves to a committing state by force-writ - ArrivalRate Transaction arrival rate/site ing a commit log record and sending COM - MIT messages to all the cohorts. Each Slackfactor Slack factor in Deadline formula cohort after receiving a COMMIT message moves to the committing state, force-writes a commit log record, and sends an FileSelecton Time Degree of Freedom (DistDegree) acknowledgement (ACK) message to the master. If the master receives even one WriteProb Page update probability NO vote, it moves to the aborting state by force writing an abort log record and sends PageCPU CPU page processing time ABORT messages to those cohorts that are in the prepared state. These cohorts, PageDisk Disk page access time after receiving the ABORT message, move to aborting state, force-write an abort log TerminalThink Time between completion of one record and send an ACK message to the master. Finally, the master, after receiving transaction & submission of another acknowledgement from all the prepared cohorts, writes an end log record and then Numwrite Number of Write Transactions forgets and made free the transaction. The statistics are collected in the Sink [Jayanta NumberReadT Number of Read Transactions et al’90,92,96]. the resources that the transaction requires to process a page is 10 milliseconds while The database is modeled as a collection of for its execution. The Slack factor is a con - disk access times are 20 milliseconds. DBsize pages that are uniformly distributed stant that provides control over the tight - across all the NumSites sites. At each site, ness or slackness of the transaction dead - In this simulation mainly concentrated in transactions arrive under Poisson stream lines. processing timing of commit protocol. It is sure that if it is reduced the number of miss TABLE 2. VALUES OF SIMULATION MODEL PARAMETERS In this model, each of transactions, it can also able to reduce the the transaction in the atomicity problem. If the transaction’s Parameters Set Values supplied workload has action deadline expires either before com - the structure of the sin - pletion of its local processing, or before the NumSites 8 gle master and multi - master has written the global decision log ple cohorts as record, the transaction is killed and dis - Dbsize vary(max.2400) described above. The carded. number of sites at ArrivalRate 6 to 8 job/sec which each transaction IV. EXPERIMENTS AND RESULTS executes is specifying Slackfactor 4 by the Fileselection The study for performance evaluation time (DistDegree) starts by first developing a base model. FileSelecton Time 3 parameter. At each of Further experiments were constructed the execution sites, the around the base model experiments by WriteProb 0.5 number of pages varying a few parameters at a time. The accessed by the trans - experiment has been performed using dif - PageCPU 10ms action’s cohort varies ferent simulation language such as, in uniformly between 0.5 report [Jayanta et al’96] using C++Sim, and PageDisk 20ms and 1.5 times in report [Jayanta et al’92] using DeNet. CohortSize. These For this study, GPSS World TerminalThink 0 to 0.5 sec pages are chosen ran - [Minutesmansoftware’01] is used as a sim - domly from among the ulator. Literatures are also collected from with rate ArrivalRate, and each transaction database pages located at that site. A page several recent studies [Xiong and has an associated firm deadline. The dead - that is read is updated with probability of Ramamritham'04, Datta and Son'02, line is assigned using the formula WriteProb. Summary of the simulation Gustavsson and Andler'05,Ziong et DT=AT+SF*RT (1). parameter is given in table 1. al'05,Jan 06,Kang et al'07, Idoudi et al'08].

Here DT, AT, SF and RT are the deadline, C. Parameter Settings The performance metric of the experiments arrival rate, Slack factor and resource time The values of the parameter set in the sim - is MissPercent that is the percentage of respectively, of transaction T. The ulation are given in table II. The CPU time input transaction that the system is unable Resource time is the total service time at to complete before their deadline. The

62 research eBritain Spring 2011

Centralize and distrib - uted performances is 4.5. Firm Randomization shown in Fig 2. General randomization rules may give a repetition value in a short iteration. A work 4.2.Impact of file is assigned to a site number, which is gen - selection time to erated by the randomization rule among 8 Individual sites sites. For example, the first work may be The simulation was assigned to site number 5 and the second performing by taking 8 work may be assigned site number 2. The distributed sites and third work may be assigned to site number by varying their file 5 again, if the randomization rules generate selection timing. The 5. This value 5 should not be generated performance analyses again at least before completion last itera - of each of the sites tion. A sites or cohort need some time to Figure 2. Comparison of Centralized and under a normal work - complete a previous work and to process Distributed performances load are shown in Fig another new workload. Here introduced a 3. The miss percent - new concept of randomization for distribut - MissPercent values in range of 0% to 20% age of transaction is ing workload to sites so as to avoid assign - are taken to represent system performance reduced in increasing the file selection tim - ing more worked load to a busy site. There under “Normal” loads, while ranges of 21% ing. are “n” numbers of sites in the system. It is to 100% represent system performance made the firm randomization in such a way under “heavy” loads. The study analyzes 4.3. Impact of arrival rates to Individual that, any randomized value should not be the performance of the system under differ - sites ent workload with varying the arrival rate of In this set of experi - the transaction and their deadlines. Also ments, the impact of the study analyzed the performance using increasing the arrival this new concept of firm randomization rates was observed technique (given below). Only the statisti - on the performances cally significant results are discussed. The of the each of sites comparison of the performance of the sys - under normal load tem under Centralized commit and and heavy load. Fig 4 Distributed commit processing also shown. presents the results The experimental results are discussed obtained. Here s1, s2 below. etc are representing the 8 sites. Under This section discusses the statistical both conditions, the results of this simulation under different miss percentage is environments. The distributed systems reduced at the lower have higher percentage of miss values of arrival rate Transactions than centralized system. The of the transactions for higher miss percentage of transaction cre - each of the sites. In Figure 3. Effect of File Selection Time to ates problem in managing atomicity of the both the normal and Individual Sites transaction in such a system. This leads to heavy load the arrival design of a new distributed commit-pro - rate play an important role to give a mini - repeated twice, at least in between “1 to n” cessing protocol to have a real-time com - mized miss percentage. The success ratios iteration; repetition is allowed after “n+1” mitting performance. The comparison of of the transaction are also increase by low - iteration. This helps to distribute a heavy ering the arrival rate. work uniformly to all cohorts. The new techniques also give better statistics as compared to the normal randomization rule 4.4. Impact of arrival rate to Throughput 4.6. Comparison of Normal and new firm In this set of experiments, Randomization the impact of increasing In this set of experiments, the performance the arrival rates was comparison under normal available ran - observed on the through - domization and new firm randomization put of the system. Fig5 process are observed. While distributing presents the results the works to different sites, the new firm obtained. The throughput randomization process helps in avoiding initially increases with continuous assignments to some specific increase in arrival rate. busy sites. It helps to distribute the works But it drops rapidly at very uniformly to all sites. Fig 6 shows that the high loads. So the more performance of the system gets better studies are required to under firm randomization technique by observe the correlation about 10 to 6%. So proper choice of the between missed % and distribution or randomization are require Figure 4. Impact of Arrival Rates to the throughput to have an designing a best-real time distributed pro - Individual Sites optimized performance. cessing system.

63 research eBritain Spring 2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Idoudi, N. Duvallet, C. Sadeg, B. Bouaz - Grateful acknowledge - iz, R. Gargouri, F,2008, Structural Model of ments to Minuteman Real-Time Databases: An Illustration, 11th Software, P.O. Box 131, IEEE International Symposium on Object- Holly Springs, North Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing Carolina, 27540-0131, (ISORC 2008). USA for providing free Jan Lindstrom, 2006, "Relaxed Correctness study materials at their site for Firm Real-Time Databases," rtcsa,pp.82- www.minutemansoft - 86, 12th IEEE International Conference on ware.com. Embedded and Real-Time Computing Sys - tems and Applications (RTCSA'06)

Jayant H. 1991, “Transaction Scheduling in Firm Real-Time Database Systems”, Ph.D. Thesis, Computer Science Dept. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

Jayant H. Carey M and Livney M, 1990,“Dy - namic Real-Time Optimistic Concurrency Control”, Proc. of 11th IEEE Real-Time Sys - Figure 5. Impact of Arrival Rates to tems Symp. Throughput Jayant H., Ramesh G. Kriti.R, S. Seshadri, 1996, ”Commit processing in Distributed V. CONCLUSION Real-Time Database Systems”, Tech. Re - The real time distributed port-TR-96-01, Pro. Pro. Of 17th IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, USA processing system has been simulating under dif - Jayant. H, Carey M, Livney M,’92, Data Ac - ferent traffic load such as cess Scheduling in Firm Real time Database normal load and heavy Systems, Real Time systems Journal, 4(3) load. In both conditions the arrival rate of transac - Kang W, Son, S., Stankovic J, and Amirijoo tion plays a major role in M, 2007, I/O Aware Deadline Miss Ratio reducing number of miss Management in Real-Time Embedded Data - bases, IEEE RTSS percentage and improved performance. The analy - Kohler W, 1981,A survey of Techniques for sis report of the individual Synchronization and Recovery in Decentral - sites also shows that a ized Computer System, ACM Computing smaller value of the Fig 6. Comparison of Normal randomization Surveys, 13(2) arrival rate is important to and new firm randomization process have a less percentage of Lampson B and Lomet D, 1993, A new Pre - miss transactions which will give better per - sumes Commit Optimization for Two phase Commit, Pro.of 19th VLDB Conference formance. It also demands the larger value References Datta A and Son S. H., 2002, " A Study of of File selection timing to minimize the miss Concurrency Control in Real-Time Active Levy E., Korth H and Silberschatz A.1991, percentage to give better results. Database Systems," IEEE Transactions on An optimistic commit protocol for distributed Knowledge and Data Engineering, vol. transaction management, Pro.of ACM SIG - The throughput initially increases with 14(3),465-484 MOD Conf. increase in arrival rate. But it drops rapidly at very high work loads. So the more stud - Davidson S., Lee I and Wolfe V.,1989, A pro - Minutesmansoftware, GPSS world, North ies are required to observe the correlation tocol for Times Atomic Commitment, Proc. of Carolina, U. S. A. 2001(4E). [GPSS-Book] Mohan, C, Lindsay B and Obermark R, between missed % and the throughput to 9th Intl. Conf. On Distributed Computing System 1986,Transaction Management in the R* have an optimized performance. Distributed Database Management Systems, Gray. J,978 “Notes on Database Operating ACM TODS, 11(4) Time consumption on busy sites by repeti - Systems”, Operating Systems: An Advanced tively assignment of new workload and Course, Lecture notes in Computer Science, Nystrom D, Nolin M,2004,Pessimistic Con - reassigning that to other sites can be 60 currency Control and Versioning to Support solved by proper distribution or randomiza - Database Pointers in Real-Time Databases, tion process. A new approach “firm ran - Gustavsson S and Andler S, 2005, Decen - Proc. 16th Euromicro Conf. on Real-Time Systems, Catania domization” method helps to distribute tralized and continuous consistency man - agement in distributed real-time databases workloads to all sites uniformly so that per - with multiple writers of replicated data, Oszu M, Valduriez P, 1991, Principles of Dis - centage miss transactions are minimized. Workshop on parallel and distributed real- tributed Database Systems, Prentice- Once a workload is over assigned to a time systems, Denver, CO Hall,1991 busy site, reassignment of works to some other free sites will take extra time. The Han Q, 2003, Addressing timeliness /accu - Ramamritham,Son S. H, and DiPippo L, new ‘firm randomization’ will prevent from racy/ cost tradeoffs in information collection 2004, Real-Time Databases and Data Serv - taking extra time by directing to free sites in for dynamic environments, IEEE Real-Time ices, Real-Time Systems J., vol. 28, 179-216 initial assignment. System Symposium,Cancun, Mexico

64 research eBritain Spring 2011

Robert A and Garcia-Molina H, 1992, Sched - uling Real-Time Transactions, ACM Trans. on Database Systems, 17(3)

Silberschatz, Korth, Sudarshan-2002, Data - base system concept,4th (I.E), McGraow-Hill Pub. 698-709,903

Xiong M, Han S., and Lam K, 2005, A De - ferrable Scheduling for Real-Time Transac - tions Maintaining Data Freshness, IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium, FL

Xiong M. and Ramamritham K., 2004, Deriv - ing Deadlines and Periods for Real-Time Up - date Transactions, IEEE Trans. on Comput - ers, vol. 53,(5)

Biographies DR. Y. JAYANTA SINGH works as a Lecturer iat the College of Information Technology, 7th October University, Misurata, (Libya). He ob - tained his M.Sc and Ph.D in Computer Sci - ence from Dr. B.A.Marathwada University, (India) in 2000 and 2004 respectively. He has worked with Keane (Canada), Skyline Univer - sity College (UAE), TechMahindra (India). His research papers are published in Internation - al and National Journals and in conference proceedings. His areas of interest are Net - working, DBMS, ISO Process, Software Engi - neering and Simulation etc.

PROF HASAN AL-SAEDY works at the British Institute of Technology and E-Com - merce; he obtained his MPhil and PhD de - grees from Westminster University and Southampton University (UK). Both degrees were in computer Science in 1977 and 1981 respectively. He had worked in many univer - sities in Middle East, Africa and the UK. His research papers are published at Internation - al conferences and in journals. His areas of interest are Machine Learning and Internet Security applications

DR. S. C MEHROTRA, F.N.A,Sc., FIETE works as a professor in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Au - rangabad (India). He received his master de - gree in Physics from Allahabad University (In - dia) in 1970 and Ph.D. in Physics from Austin (USA) in 1975. He is recipient of Welch Foun - dation Fellowship (1975), Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship (1983-85), FOM (Netherland). He has published more than 150 papers in areas of Time Domain Re - flectometery, Speech Processing, and Net - work Simulation

65 eBritain Spring 2011

SOLUTIONS

SUDOKU

CROSSWORD

SPIRALE Answers: 1- Mangle 2- Avenue 3- Remove 4- Income 5- Entice 6- Couple 7- Uncase 8- Rumble 9- Inside 10- Escape

Marie Curie (pictured with husband Pierre)

66

St James’s Business School is an executive development of the British Institute of Technology & E-commerce.