Animal experiments: Biological experiments in Spacelab

1977 ◽  
Vol 199 (1137) ◽  
pp. 479-483 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Animal Experiments ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Zero Gravity ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cooperative Project

Towards the end of 1980 the first Spacelab will be launched. It represents the culmination of a major cooperative project between the nations subscribing to the European Space Agency and N. A. S. A. The Spacelab module contains a laboratory inside which a wide range of experiments can be carried out in an environment which, apart from the absence of gravity, is not unlike that of a terrestrial laboratory. From the point of view of the life scientist it represents an opportunity to carry out experiments to investigate the effect of zero gravity or modu­lated gravity on biological preparations including man. The first mission will last seven days, but subsequent missions planned for the decade 1980-1990 may last up to thirty days. The purpose of the paper is to introduce participants to the facilities which are available in Spacelab and to explain the procedure by which experiments may be proposed. There is also a discussion of the present funding arrangements in the United Kingdom.

scholarly journals Are public service media distinctive from the market? Interpreting the political information environments of BBC and commercial news in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
pp. 026732312110121
Author(s):  
Stephen Cushion
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Television News ◽  
Information Environment ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
International Issues ◽  
Market Driven

Public service media face an existential crisis. Many governments are cutting their budgets, while questioning the role and value of public service broadcasting because many citizens now have access to a wide range of media. This raises the question – do public service media supply a distinctive and informative news service compared to market-led media? Drawing on the concept of political information environment, this study makes an intervention into debates by carrying out a comparative content analysis of news produced by UK public service broadcasters and market-driven media across television, radio and online outlets (N = 1065) and interviewing senior editors about the routine selection of news. It found that almost all BBC news and commercial public service media platforms reported more news about politics, public affairs and international issues than entirely market-driven outlets. Online BBC news reported more informative topics than market-based media, which featured more entertainment and celebrity stories. The value of public service media was demonstrated on the United Kingdom’s nightly television news bulletins, which shone a light on the world not often reported, especially BBC News at Ten. Most market-driven media reported through a UK prism, excluding many countries and international issues. Overall, it is argued that the influence of public service media in the United Kingdom helps shape an information environment with informative news. The focus of the study is on UK media, but the conceptual application of intepreting a political information environment is designed to be relevant for scholars internationally. While communication studies have sought to advance more cross-national studies in recent years, this can limit how relevant studies are for debates in national political information environments. This study concludes by recommending more scholarly attention should be paid to theorising national policy dynamics that shape the political information environments of media systems within nations.

A virtual test environment for validating spacecraft optical navigation

2013 ◽  
Vol 117 (1197) ◽  
pp. 1075-1101 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Parkes ◽  
I. Martin ◽  
M. N. Dunstan ◽  
N. Rowell ◽  
O. Dubois-Matra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Small Body ◽  
European Space Agency ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Camera Motion ◽  
Test Environment ◽  
Space Applications ◽  
Vision Guidance ◽  
Space Agency ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
And Performance

Abstract The use of machine vision to guide robotic spacecraft is being considered for a wide range of missions, such as planetary approach and landing, asteroid and small body sampling operations and in-orbit rendezvous and docking. Numerical simulation plays an essential role in the development and testing of such systems, which in the context of vision-guidance means that realistic sequences of navigation images are required, together with knowledge of the ground-truth camera motion. Computer generated imagery (CGI) offers a variety of benefits over real images, such as availability, cost, flexibility and knowledge of the ground truth camera motion to high precision. However, standard CGI methods developed for terrestrial applications lack the realism, fidelity and performance required for engineering simulations. In this paper, we present the results of our ongoing work to develop a suitable CGI-based test environment for spacecraft vision guidance systems. We focus on the various issues involved with image simulation, including the selection of standard CGI techniques and the adaptations required for use in space applications. We also describe our approach to integration with high-fidelity end-to-end mission simulators, and summarise a variety of European Space Agency research and development projects that used our test environment.

School Reform and Parental Engagement Learning in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Goodall
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
School Reform ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Parental Engagement ◽  
Reform Movements ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Per Se

Parental engagement in children and young people’s learning has been shown to be an important lever for school improvement and young people’s outcomes. However, parents are rarely involved in school reform movements. These reform movements are generally centered on the school rather than on improvement of learning per se. Shifting the focus away from the school and to learning as an overarching aim requires the inclusion of and partnership with parents. This is a new way of understanding school reform but has the best chance of supporting all students, including those not best served by the schooling systems in the early 21st century. The reforms here are chiefly concerned with U.K. schooling systems, but could be more widely applicable, and call on a wide range of evidence, from the United Kingdom and beyond.

The cereal grain trade in the United Kingdom: the problem of cereal variety

1984 ◽  
Vol 304 (1120) ◽  
pp. 395-407 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Major Constituent ◽  
Variety Identification ◽  
Starch Gel Electrophoresis ◽  
Current Frequency ◽  
Growth Environment ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Cereal Grain ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

The production of cereals in the United Kingdom has increased steadily over recent years from 12.6 million tonnes in 1964 to 21.8 million tonnes in 1982. During this period, the United Kingdom’s accession to the E.E.C. in 1973 caused a reverse in the milling industry’s policy of including only a small proportion of home-grown wheat with imported wheat in breadmaking grists. Home-grown wheat is now the major constituent of mass produced bread. Since the passing of the Plant Varieties Rights Act in 1964, plant breeders have been able to collect royalties on the sale of seed of their varieties; this led within a decade to a large number of high yielding varieties on offer to the farmer. Thus during the period of adjustment to home-grown wheat after 1973, the milling industry had to select from a wide range of varieties of different milling and baking qualities. Selection was aided by the offer of a ‘premium’ (extra payment) for wheat of the right variety. The millers’ problem then was to be able to check that the wheat received was of the variety claimed by the supplier. Investigations of the heterogeneity ofgliadins by electrophoresis had been conducted by several workers, but a refined procedure was developed that used starch gel electrophoresis that was able to distinguish most varieties of wheat grown in France and the E.E.C. Different electrophoretic patterns were obtained from individual grains of different varieties: grains of the same variety gave similar patterns irrespective of growth environment. Subsequent developments of variety identification by electrophoresis have improved the resolution and time of analysis. Use of electrophoresis to check the varietal composition of grain being supplied to a British miller revealed that contracts that specified varietal content were usually, but not always, complied with. It was found that the miller was able to seek financial reimbursement from his supplier to compensate for the poorer grade of wheat received in about one in eight deliveries from France; and in about one in seven deliveries from the British farmer. Farmers have now adjusted to growing, storing and supplying varieties separately, such that the current frequency of erroneous grain delivery is about one in 50. The impact of variety identification by electrophoresis in barley trading has been less than in wheat trading. This is partly because it is sometimes possible to verify a purchase through examination of grain morphology, and partly because the alternative electrophoretic analysis is often impractical, because of frequently large numbers of barley varieties carrying identical hordein proteins.

Armchair Auditors: Crowdsourcing Analysis of Government Expenditures

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel E. O'Leary
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Government Expenditures ◽  
Data Movement ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Open Data Movement

ABSTRACT Increasingly, there is interest in using information and communications technology (ICT) to help build a “better world.” As an example, the United Kingdom has initiated an “open data” movement to disclose financial information about federal and local governments and other organizations. This has led to the use of a wide range of technologies (Internet, Databases, Web 2.0, etc.) to facilitate disclosure. However, since there is a huge cost of generating and maintaining open data, there also is a concern: “will anyone do anything with the data?” In a speech in 2009, David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, used the term “armchair auditor” to describe crowdsourcing analysis of that data. In that speech, Cameron (2009) noted: “Just imagine the effect that an army of armchair auditors is going to have on those expense claims.” Accordingly, as more and more countries and organizations generate open data, those “armchair auditors” could play an increasingly important role: to help crowdsource monitoring of government expenditures. This paper investigates a number of potential benefits and a number of emerging concerns associated with armchair auditors.

Surface and Groundwater Quality and Health, with a Focus on the United Kingdom

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Neal
Keyword(s):  
Drinking Water ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Groundwater Quality ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Basic Sanitation ◽  
Per Capita ◽  
Surface And Groundwater

Freshwater environments are of major importance to health issues in both direct (e.g., drinking water and sanitation) and indirect (e.g., industry, agriculture, and amenity/recreation) ways. However, water resources are finite, and, though renewable, demands have multiplied over the last 100 years due to escalating human populations and the growing requirements of industry and agriculture. Hence, there are increasing global concerns over the extent of present and future good quality water resources. As Gleick (1998) emphasizes: . . . ·Per-capita water demands are increasing, but percapita water availability is decreasing due to population growth and economic development. . . . . . . ·Half the world’s population lacks basic sanitation and more than a billion people lack potable drinking water; these numbers are rising. Incidences of some water-related diseases are rising. . . . . . . ·The per-capita amount of irrigated land is falling and competition for agricultural water is growing. . . . . . . ·Political and military tensions/conflicts over shared water resources are growing. . . . . . . ·A groundwater overdraft exists, the size of which is accelerating; groundwater supplies occur on every continent except Antarctica. . . . . . . ·Global climate change is evident, and the hydrological cycle will be seriously affected in ways that are only beginning to be understood. . . . The chemical composition of surface and groundwaters is influenced by a wide range of processes, some of which are outside the influence of humans while others are a direct consequence of anthropogenic pollution or changing of the environment. Starting with the range and nature of the processes involved, the changing nature of surface and groundwater quality is illustrated here, based on the evolution of the United Kingdom from a rural to an industrial and to a post- industrial society. The issue of what constitutes a health risk is outlined in relation to the pragmatic approaches required for environmental management. Surface and groundwater exhibit a wide range of chemical compositions, and, in ecosystems uninfluenced by humans, the range of compositions can vary considerably.

Economic Issues in Water Privatisation and Regulation

1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 1921-1928
Author(s):  
D. R. Glynn ◽  
W. R. Baker ◽  
C. A. Jones ◽  
J. L. Liesner
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Public Water Supply ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Water And Sewerage Industry ◽  
Treatment And Disposal

During the privatisation of the United Kingdom water and sewerage industry a wide range of important and challenging practical economic issues were encountered, many of which also arise in some form or other throughout the developed and developing worlds. One such issue is the control of the prices charged for public water supply and sewerage, sewage treatment and disposal services. This paper explores some of those issues, analyses how privatisation and regulation have been shaped in order to address them, and, where possible, evaluates performance so far. Where appropriate, examples of how similar issues have been tackled are given for other countries, including the US and France.

Applications of Internet-Based Marketing Instruments by Multichannel Retailers

2011 ◽  
pp. 284-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Madlberger
Keyword(s):  
Distribution Channels ◽  
The United States ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Online Retailers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Range Of Functions ◽  
Online Shops ◽  
Related Observation

Online and off-line retailers fulfill a wide range of functions that are beneficial to manufacturers as well as to individual consumers. In doing so, they apply a mix of marketing instruments for their store-based and Internet-based distribution channels. As the Internet offers many different innovative alternatives of marketing instruments, the question arises as to what extent online retailers apply Internet-based marketing strategies in order to attract online customers. The empirical study presented in this chapter aims at finding out to what extent powerful multichannel retailers utilize these different Internet-based marketing instruments. The study is conducted by Web site observation in order to represent the customer’s point of view. A total of 60 online shops in the United States and in the United Kingdom are analyzed using 17 marketing-related observation criteria. The study reveals that the observed multichannel retailers still prefer “traditional” retail marketing instruments on their online shops and often do without innovative Internet-based marketing instruments such as personalization or content and information offering. Additionally, we identified fewer differences between the observed U.S. and UK retailers than expected. These findings should spur further research on the use of e-marketing by online retailers especially in an explanative manner.

The Compensation of the Victims of the Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease in the United Kingdom

2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-167
Author(s):  
Andrea Boggio
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Political Environments

Establishing no-fault compensatory schemes is problematic from both a political and legal point of view. In this essay, I analyse the process that led to the compensation of the victims of Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease and its variant. The paper shows that, although the diseases present many similarities, the two processes took very different paths because of the different, political environments in which they took place. Moreover, several possible lessons can be drawn from the compensation of CJD victims, which can potentially affect the establishment of future no-fault schemes in the United Kingdom.

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