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Although I am going to deal generally with the published translations of Soviet scientific journals, some of what I have to say necessarily stems from, and is influenced by, my own experience as a full‐time editor specializing in certain Russian physics journals. I know you will forgive this bias because most of the problems associated with the translation of physics journals are common to all other specialist scientific journals.

The broad results of surveys on the ways in which Wellcome scientists handle foreign language technical texts are discussed. Areas of co‐operation between organizations leading to a reduction in costs and an increase in coverage are suggested with a view to Aslib acting as co‐ordinator and arranging discussions between interested parties.

Information technology is a new interdisciplinary field combining information science, computing, telecommunications and electronics. As it establishes links across national and linguistic boundaries it also acquires a multilingual dimension requiring translators as links in the interlingual communication process. The translator thus can no longer be considered in isolation; he is simply another mediator, generally between natural languages, similar in function to information scientists who mediate between natural and artificial languages, be they documentation languages or command languages to access databases, and similar also to those computational linguists who mediate between natural languages and computer languages. Interlingual communication is expanding and its means and methods are changing. This is not only reflected in two major Aslib Conferences on this topic in two years, but in Action Plans of the Commission of the EC, the activities of INFOTERM in Vienna, ISO, FID, and UNESCO involvement in this work, the growth of terminological data banks, as well as new organizations and studies in every developed country, some of which were mentioned during this conference.

‘The telling of this story’ wrote Gottfried Keller at the start of his Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe, ‘might seem to be merely pointless repetition.’ The writer of yet another paper on technical translations may feel himself in the same position. What can he say that has not already been said? Faced with this problem, I first thought to solve it by describing my own experiences in this field, since one of my functions as an information officer is to operate a translation service. I am therefore inviting you to follow the progress of a typical translation through our system at BP Research Centre from the initial request to the final evaluation. However, to prevent this talk from being too parochial, I shall try to relate each stage of the process to the wider issues involved.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications for people with Down’s syndrome and their families of identifying those people who are at risk of developing dementia from the research study “Estimating the number of people with Down’s syndrome in Scotland and the cohort at elevated risk of early onset dementia”.

The commentary is based on a review of the associated literature.

Estimating the numbers is important but has serious implications for people who have an elevated risk and their families. Preparation and ongoing support and planning are vital to ensure that quality of life is maintained as dementia is identified and progresses.

The commentary considers the research presented from a practitioner perspective.

These case studies reflect the wide range of activities of people who are all labelled ‘translator’. Three of the writers, John Alvey, John Craddock and Albin Tybulewicz, are members of the Committee of Aslib's Technical Translation Group. The fourth, Douglas Embleton, is a Group member but less able to participate actively because he is based some considerable distance from London.

Does having alcoholic parents make you more susceptible to alcohol problems? Why do some people develop drink or drug problems while others in the same family do not? How much can genetic research tell us about why drink and drugs can affect people in so many different ways? With genetic research discovering increasing links with behaviour we invited two of the leading addiction and gene researchers to explain the science. Tamara Phillips and John Crabbe uncover the ever‐emerging world of genetic research and addiction theory.

The Dementia Questionnaire for People with Learning Disabilities (DLD) is one of the main screening and monitoring tools for dementia in people with Down’s syndrome (DS). As part of a quality improvement project to improve the care for people with DS and dementia in an intellectual disability service, the authors studied the screening and monitoring process by retrospectively investigating the use of DLD and exploring clinicians’ experience of using it.

DLDs completed in the service was retrospectively assessed. Changes in DLD scores were matched against people who received a clinical diagnosis of dementia. Data were analysed to estimate sensitivity, specificity and predictive values of DLD. A questionnaire was used to assess clinicians’ experience.

Data for 20 service users was collected. DLD cognitive scores showed 80% sensitivity and 60% specificity for the diagnosis of dementia, with a positive predictive value of 40% and negative predictive value of 90%. Staff found DLD to be easy to perform but time consuming. This led to the preparation of a decision tool for appropriateness of performing a DLD.

The results show that a negative DLD helps to exclude dementia where there is concern over cognitive decline, but a positive result is not specific enough to suggest the possibility of dementia. This shows that DLD may have limitations if used as a screening tool alone but could be used for the monitoring of the disease trajectory of those with a confirmed diagnosis as well as to establish a baseline DLD when a person is screened for dementia first.