2,099 research outputs found

    Mary K. Hudson Receives 2017 John Adam Fleming Medal

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    Mary K. Hudson was awarded the 2017 John Adam Fleming Medal at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 13 December 2017 in New Orleans, La. The medal is for “original research and technical leadership in geomagnetism, atmospheric electricity, aeronomy, space physics, and/or related sciences.”</jats:p

    Fleming, adaptation, and the author biopic

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    The mini-series Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond, which aired in the U.S. on BBC America and in the U.K. on Sky Atlantic in 2014, offered an entertaining and glamorised account of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond. Focusing in particular on Fleming’s time during the Second World War, a period in which he served in British Naval Intelligence, successive episodes comprised embroidered accounts of his experiences, with a heavy emphasis on scenes and motifs that chimed with the doings of his most famous character. This approach to the author’s life-story foregrounded the same elements upon which previous small-screen biographies of Ian Fleming had focused, especially his creation of Bond. The TV film Goldeneye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming (1989) addressed his wartime experiences and subsequent Bond writing, while Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming (1990) doubled down on its Bond connections by casting Jason Connery (son of original film 007, Sean Connery) as Fleming in a Second World War adventure with numerous James Bond parallels. Likewise, Ian Fleming: Bondmaker (2005) and Ian Fleming: Where Bond Began (2008) both framed Fleming first and foremost in terms of his literary creation. With high production values, and a strong cast that included Dominic Cooper, Lara Pulver, and Samuel West, Fleming bore several of the hallmarks of what has come to be called “quality television” (Thompson, 1997) , and was heavily promoted in the weeks running up to its broadcast. However, a contemporary review in Wired by Graeme McMillan saw it as evidence of a problematic tendency in recent biopics. McMillan asserted that while such texts were previously “a mix of entertainment, education and guilt-free voyeurism,” they have become “a contradictory mix of hagiography and revisionism, lionizing their subjects while somehow managing to diminish them in comparison to the products of their imagination” (McMillan, 2014). In this chapter I will look to unpick this contention, and—in particular—to approach Fleming and the author biopic in terms of adaptation

    Portable Automobile Data Acquisition Module (ADAM) for naturalistic driving study

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    In this paper, we present a non-intrusive, low-cost, portable Automotive Data Acquisition Module (ADAM) designed to gather naturalistic position, speed, acceleration and headway data based on two Raspberry Pi microcomputers, stereo cameras, GPS and IMU sensors. A prototype has been built with the ability to collect and store data. This prototype can be installed on the windscreen of a car without any interference to the safety of the car and driver. The naturalistic data collected is time-series data intended to be used to build driver models for human-in-the-loop control but may also be useful in human factors studies. One set of collected data is presented to show the performance of the device, and a validation study is performed to compare the collected range data with that from an instrumented vehicle

    Blastocyst environment and its influence on offspring cardiovascular health: the heart of the matter

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    The development of adult-onset diseases such as type II diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease is traditionally attributed to adult lifestyle characteristics such as a lack of physical exercise, poor diet and smoking. However, evidence from both human and animal model studies has demonstrated that environmental factors such as an imbalance or reduction in maternal nutrition during gestation can have adverse effects on offspring metabolism and cardiovascular health. The severity and nature of the phenotypic changes induced in offspring is influenced by the period of gestation manipulated. In particular, the mammalian preimplantation embryo in different animal models displays particular sensitivity to environmental factors, either in vivo (maternal diet) or in vitro (embryo culture) that is associated with the onset of cardiovascular dysfunction in adult life. The detailed mechanisms by which environmental conditions can alter postnatal cardiovascular physiology are poorly understood. However, various factors including endothelial function, vascular responsiveness, the renin-angiotensin system, kidney structure and early postnatal growth dynamics have all been recognize as potential contributors. Here, we review the relationship between preimplantation embryo environment and postnatal cardiovascular disease risk, and consider biochemical, molecular, genetic and physiological pathways implicated in this association

    Fleming, R.L. Sr., Fleming, R.L., Jr. & Bangdel, L.S. — Birds of Nepal, with reference to Kashmir and Sikkim. Katmandu, Nepal, chez le senior author (Box 229), 1976

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    Bourlière François. Fleming, R.L. Sr., Fleming, R.L., Jr. & Bangdel, L.S. — Birds of Nepal, with reference to Kashmir and Sikkim. Katmandu, Nepal, chez le senior author (Box 229), 1976. In: La Terre et La Vie, Revue d'Histoire naturelle, tome 31, n°2, 1977. p. 348

    The preimplantation embryo: handle with care

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    The past decade has seen considerable advances in our understanding of intrinsic developmental mechanisms associated with gametogenesis and embryogenesis and accompanying applications in the fields of reproductive medicine, embryonic stem cell biology, and nuclear reprogramming. However, a new focus has recently emerged concerning the homeostatic regulation of embryonic cells, how this is set, and how it may influence the longitudinal progression and optimization of the developmental program and indeed the phenotype of the offspring. Attention has been drawn to the preimplantation stage of development as a sensitive "window" when in vitro and in vivo manipulations, such as culture conditions or maternal diet, may have critical consequences. In this article, we review how changes in environmental conditions, mediated via a range of epigenetic, cellular, and metabolic mechanisms in the preimplantation embryo, may alter the pattern of cell division, gene expression, morphology, and potential. We consider how fetal and postnatal phenotype may become susceptible to the plasticity of the preimplantation embryo and the risks for adult health and physiology

    James Bond: international man of gastronomy

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    This article is concerned with the representation of food and drink in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. In particular, it examines how the author uses Bond’s culinary knowledge and habits of consumption as an important constituent of his hero’s character. Similarly, the food choices of other characters, notably villains, are shown to be linked, by Fleming, to core aspects of their identity − principally their ethnicity. Bond’s impulse to observe and classify, very much in evidence in the novels’ food sequences, is examined in terms of the texts’ construction of Bond as a skilled identifier of signs

    Periconceptional environment and the developmental origins of disease

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    The concept emerging from Professor David Barker’s seminal research on the developmental origins of later-life disease has progressed in many directions since it was first published. One critical question being when during gestation might environment alter the developmental programme with such enduring consequences. Here, we review the growing consensus from clinical and animal research that the period around conception, embracing gamete maturation and early embryogenesis might be the most vulnerable period. We focus on four types of environmental exposure shown to modify periconceptional reproduction and offspring development and health: maternal overnutrition and obesity; maternal undernutrition; paternal diet and health; and assisted reproductive technology. These conditions may act through diverse epigenetic, cellular and physiological mechanisms to alter gene expression and cellular signalling and function in the conceptus affecting offspring growth and metabolism leading to increased risk for cardiometabolic and neurological disease in later life.</p

    Did Alexander Fleming deserve the Nobel Prize?

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    Penicillin is a serendipitous discovery par excellence. But, what does this say about Alexander Fleming’s praiseworthiness? Clearly, Fleming would not have received the Nobel Prize, had not a mould accidently entered his laboratory. This seems paradoxical, since it was beyond his control. The present article will first discuss Fleming’s discovery of Penicillin as an example of moral luck in science and technology and critically assess some common responses to this problem. Second, the Control Principle that says that people are not responsible for things beyond their control will be defended. An implication of this principle is that Alexander Fleming’s desert, which is based on his epistemic skills, remains untouched by luck. Third, by distinguishing different notions of praiseworthiness, a way to resolve the paradox of moral luck will be elaborated. Desert provides only a pro tanto reason to determine whether someone is an appropriate addressee of reward. Here, luck can make a difference. Forth, it will be argued that stimulating the quest for socially beneficial science provides a compelling reason to treat scientists with equal desert differently. Penicillin provides striking evidence for the importance of this quest and showcasing it incentivizes the making of socially beneficial science. Ultimately, it will be justified why Fleming deserved the Nobel Prize in at least one sense of the concept.Ethics & Philosophy of Technolog
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