Anti-Kell polyclonal antibody [Biotin]

This article analyses the research methods adopted while working with Kel Tamasheq (Tuareg) families in the urban space of Bamako. With no authorisation to move outside the city, the researcher cannot but be, on the one hand, a fixed point of observation of informants' movements in and out of the city. On the other hand, the progressively acquired capacity to move through Bamako's Kel Tamasheq families - sometimes depending on others, sometimes autonomously - resituates a mobile approach within a context of general immobility. As these two levels of observations collide, this article reflects on an emerging methodological approach to 'discontinuous (im)mobility'. The article suggests that strategic (im)mobility is key to comprehending the extension and organisation of different relationships. By discontinuous (im)mobility this article means a not-necessarily pre-planned organisation of the researcher's mobility while doing fieldwork. Initially this might seem to lead to great confusion in collecting and analysing qualitative ethnographic data. However, in the long run it provides a rich and varied corpus of observations and interactions that are inclusive and intra-scalar. Readiness to be (im)mobile, to navigate volatility, is the norm that is not grasped by equilibrium-driven methodological approaches based on ordered and sequential fieldwork design. This discontinuous (im) mobility allows us to comprehend the entanglement and ongoing reproduction of such variabilities, whose change is hastened by the shifting socio-political context in Mali. To support my argument, the article takes the example of tbushak, a practice of visiting relatives and friends.

Knowledge elicitation (KEL) is the most important stage, but often the principal bottleneck, in the development of knowledge-based systems. Due to the difficulties faced in the knowledge-elicitation process, development of a knowledge-based system for material design in the steel-making industry is a complex task. An attempt is made in this paper to present a new approach to deal with knowledge elicitation for material design problems in the steel-making industry. This paper centres around the human aspects and is based on practical experience gained while developing a knowledge-based system for material design al BHP Steel, Australia. This approach involves codification of the customer's special requirements to identify the knowledge sources involved in the design process. This is followed by the use of paper models to improve the efficiency of the KEL process. The second stage of the structured interviews is based on the customer's special requirement codes for eliciting the missing information and for clarifying any ambiguities or inconsistencies. The paper also discusses the use of non-interviewing techniques to elicit the expert knowledge, in order to reduce the use of expensive interview time. The knowledge-representation scheme developed for the material design system aims at reducing the search time and storage space by utilising a codification scheme to classify various knowledge sources into appropriate categories.