A behavioural approach to information retrieval system design is outlined based on the derivation of a behavioural model of the information seeking patterns of academic social scientists. The information seeking patterns of a variety of academic social scientists were broken down into six characteristics: starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring, and extracting. These characteristics constitute the principal generic features of the different individual patterns, and together provide a flexible behavioural model for information retrieval system design. The extent to which these characteristics are available on existing systems is considered, and the requirements for implementing the features on an experimental system are set out.

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The study explores the role of information and information seeking in the Research and Development Department of an international oil and gas company. The information seeking patterns of engineers and research scientists at Statoil’s Research Centre, in Trondheim, Norway were studied in relation to their research activities in different phases and types of project. The project phases were evaluation of alternative solutions; development and testing; and summary of experiences. The project types were incremental; radical; and fundamental. Eight major characteristics were identified in the patterns: surveying; chaining; monitoring; browsing; distinguishing; filtering; extracting and ending. The study analyses the requirements for different types of information in an environment where the need for internal and external resources are intertwined; it also compares features of the information seeking patterns of engineers and research scientists from this and previous studies. It was found that, although there were differences in the features of the information seeking patterns of the research scientists and engineers, the behavioural characteristics were similar; and the study identified identical or very similar categories of information seeking behaviour to those of previous studies of academic researchers.

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Human and animal fungal pathogens are a growing threat worldwide leading to emerging infections and creating new risks for established ones. There is a growing need for a rapid and accurate identification of pathogens to enable early diagnosis and targeted antifungal therapy. Morphological and biochemical identification methods are time-consuming and require trained experts. Alternatively, molecular methods, such as DNA barcoding, a powerful and easy tool for rapid monophasic identification, offer a practical approach for species identification and less demanding in terms of taxonomical expertise. However, its wide-spread use is still limited by a lack of quality-controlled reference databases and the evolving recognition and definition of new fungal species/complexes. An international consortium of medical mycology laboratories was formed aiming to establish a quality controlled ITS database under the umbrella of the ISHAM working group on "DNA barcoding of human and animal pathogenic fungi." A new database, containing 2800 ITS sequences representing 421 fungal species, providing the medical community with a freely accessible tool at http://www.isham.org/ and http://its.mycologylab.org/ to rapidly and reliably identify most agents of mycoses, was established. The generated sequences included in the new database were used to evaluate the variation and overall utility of the ITS region for the identification of pathogenic fungi at intra-and interspecies level. The average intraspecies variation ranged from 0 to 2.25%. This highlighted selected pathogenic fungal species, such as the dermatophytes and emerging yeast, for which additional molecular methods/genetic markers are required for their reliable identification from clinical and veterinary specimens.

This article explores the relationship between the concept of uncertainty in information seeking, within a model of the problem-solving process proposed by Wilson (1999a) and variables derived from other models and from the work of Ellis and Kuhlthau. The research has involved longitudinal data collection in the United States and United Kingdom employing three interview schedules (incorporating self-completed questionnaires) used for pre-and postsearch interviews: and postsearch interviews with the information seeker and the search intermediary. In addition, the Sheffield team employed a fourth set of instruments in a follow-up interview some 2 months after the search. Related search episodes, with a professional search intermediary using the Dialog Information Service and other sources were audiotaped, and search transaction logs were recorded. The mediated search clients were faculty and research students engaged in either personal or externally supported research projects. The article concludes that the problem solving model is recognized by such researchers as describing their activities and that the uncertainty concept, operationalized as here, serves as a useful variable in understanding information-seeking behavior. It also concludes that Ellis's concept of "search characteristics" and Kuhlthau's information-seeking stages are independent of the problem stage, and that a set of affective variables, based on those of Kuhlthau, appear to signify a generalized positive or negative affective orientation towards the course of the information problem solution.

We propose a non-parametric model for pedestrian motion based on Gaussian Process regression, in which trajectory data are modelled by regressing relative motion against current position. We show how the underlying model can be learned in an unsupervised fashion, demonstrating this on two databases collected from static surveillance cameras. We furthermore exemplify the use of model for prediction, comparing the recently proposed GP-Bayesfilters with a Monte Carlo method. We illustrate the benefit of this approach for long term motion prediction where parametric models such as Kalman Filters would perform poorly.

Quantum networks can interconnect remote quantum information processors, allowing interaction between different architectures and increasing net computational power. Fibreoptic telecommunications technology offers a practical platform for routing weakly interacting photonic qubits, allowing quantum correlations and entanglement to be established between distant nodes. Although entangled photons have been produced at telecommunications wavelengths using spontaneous parametric downconversion in nonlinear media, as system complexity increases their inherent excess photon generation will become limiting. Here we demonstrate entangled photon pair generation from a semiconductor quantum dot at a telecommunications wavelength. Emitted photons are intrinsically antibunched and violate Bell's inequality by 17 standard deviations High-visibility oscillations of the biphoton polarization reveal the time evolution of the emitted state with exceptional clarity, exposing long coherence times. Furthermore, we introduce a method to evaluate the fidelity to a time-evolving Bell state, revealing entanglement between photons emitted up to 5 ns apart, exceeding the exciton lifetime.