John C. Klensin

INFOODS Guidelines for Describing Foods: A systematic approach to describing foods to facilitate international exchange of food composition data

Abstract This report presents the INFOODS Guidelines for Describing Foods, which were designed with the intent of facilitating interchange of food composition data between nations and cultures by compilers of nutrient databases. Familiarity with the system should also be useful in other areas of nutrition, e.g., in recording food intakes. The system is a broad, multifaceted, and open-ended description mechanism using a string of descriptors. Criteria are proposed for deciding whether a food is “single” or “mixed” (multi-ingredient), and different sets of descriptive facets are provided for these two classes of foods. The INFOODS system is the result of extensive international consultation and is intended to be culture independent.

The Consistent System

Abstract The Consistent System (CS) is an interactive computer system for researchers in the behavioral and policy sciences and in fields with similar requirements for data management and statistical analysis. The researcher is not expected to be a programmer. The system offers a wide range of facilities and permits the user to combine them in novel ways. In particular, tools for statistical analysis may be used in combination with a powerful relational subsystem for data base management. This paper gives an overview of the objectives, capabilities, status, and availability of the system.

THE SHORTWAVE AUDIENCE IN THE USSR: Methods for Improving the Estimates

Populations where free access is denied pose special problems to the survey researcher. In attempting to make general estimates of the size and composition of the audience in the USSR to Western radio broadcasts, a simulation technique has been developed which provides estimates of underlying data from aggregate results. A methodology is also proposed as an approach to estimating the reliability of the findings, which are drawn from a large, but demographically unrepresentative sample of Soviet travelers to the West.

Beyond the package: A new approach to behavioral science computing:

Almost a decade ago, Anderson and Coover (Anderson, 1974) surveyed the state of packages of programs for social and behavioral science, commented on the capabilities of the packages, and identified some limitations they hoped would be overcome in the next generation of such software. Progress has not been as rapid as they wished. New packages have appeared, and some of the old ones have been expanded and revised, but the typical packages that are in use today still have most of the limitations Anderson and Coover described. At the same time they were making their survey, plans were being laid at MIT and Harvard for a system radically different from the traditional package. It is called the Consistent System (Dawson, et al., 1980), or simply CS, and has now been in operation for several years.’ I

Information technology and food composition databases

Abstract There have been several advances in the development and use of computerized food composition databases in recent years. However, there are still many barriers to the effective use and exploitation of such data. Continuing improvements in the quality of food composition data together with notable advances in computer technology are helping to overcome the limitations of the existing database systems.

The current programming language standards scene V: PL/I☆

Abstract Developments in the standardisation of PL/I during the period January 1980 to May 1983 are reviewed. This includes completion of the work on a standard for a general purpose subset of PL/I, and the technical committee has returned to work on a revision of the standard for the full language. The ongoing effort reflects what may be a slightly different attitude from the original language development, with the focus on making the language more usable without making it larger in toto.

The Cambridge project's consistent system

One of the main goals of the Cambridge Project is a Consistent System of programs, data, and models for use in the behavioral sciences. A framework for the System has been constructed on the Multics time-sharing system at M.I.T., and a collection of programs has begun to accumulate within it. This session will be devoted to that framework and to three examples of subsystems that are being fitted into it. They will be described briefly, and the reasons why they are expected to be more useful when surrounded by the rest of the Consistent System will be discussed.