Naval Narratives of Re-enactment: In Which We Serve and Sea of Fire

This essay examines two narrative examples of the Royal Navy and naval combat on screen, exploring their resemblances in the reenactment of naval history and their portrayal of the past through consistent representational strategies. In Which We Serve (Noel Coward and David Lean, 1942) and Sea of Fire (Ian Duncan, 2007) use deliberate and self-conscious recreations of the past to authenticate their interpretations of British naval history, and evince comparably conservative stances towards the Royal Navy and perceptions of its traditions. The similarity of their narratives, which describe the events leading up to the loss of two Navy destroyers, helps to reveal and reinforce the tonal, structural and stylistic parallels in their depictions. The correspondence in their portrayal of naval combat and the institution of the Royal Navy illustrates the consistencies of representation which characterise the naval war film as a distinctive, definable narrative form. Above all, their commitment to the recreation and reenactment of identifiable historical events underpins their importance in the representation and commemoration of the national, naval past. It is this aspect of both productions which is significant in the exploration of the role of visual representations to construct, affirm and broadcast pervasive and persuasive versions of popular history

Metabolomics to unveil and understand phenotypic diversity between pathogen populations

Visceral leishmaniasis is caused by a parasite called Leishmania donovani, which every year infects about half a million people and claims several thousand lives. Existing treatments are now becoming less effective due to the emergence of drug resistance. Improving our understanding of the mechanisms used by the parasite to adapt to drugs and achieve resistance is crucial for developing future treatment strategies. Unfortunately, the biological mechanism whereby Leishmania acquires drug resistance is poorly understood. Recent years have brought new technologies with the potential to increase greatly our understanding of drug resistance mechanisms. The latest mass spectrometry techniques allow the metabolome of parasites to be studied rapidly and in great detail. We have applied this approach to determine the metabolome of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant parasites isolated from patients with leishmaniasis. The data show that there are wholesale differences between the isolates and that the membrane composition has been drastically modified in drug-resistant parasites compared with drug-sensitive parasites. Our findings demonstrate that untargeted metabolomics has great potential to identify major metabolic differences between closely related parasite strains and thus should find many applications in distinguishing parasite phenotypes of clinical relevance

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission: Optical Telescope Element Design, Development, and Performance

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared space telescope that has recently started its science program which will enable breakthroughs in astrophysics and planetary science. Notably, JWST will provide the very first observations of the earliest luminous objects in the Universe and start a new era of exoplanet atmospheric characterization. This transformative science is enabled by a 6.6 m telescope that is passively cooled with a 5-layer sunshield. The primary mirror is comprised of 18 controllable, low areal density hexagonal segments, that were aligned and phased relative to each other in orbit using innovative image-based wavefront sensing and control algorithms. This revolutionary telescope took more than two decades to develop with a widely distributed team across engineering disciplines. We present an overview of the telescope requirements, architecture, development, superb on-orbit performance, and lessons learned. JWST successfully demonstrates a segmented aperture space telescope and establishes a path to building even larger space telescopes.Comment: accepted by PASP for JWST Overview Special Issue; 34 pages, 25 figure

Electronic Spectroscopy and Dynamics of the CH/D-Ne Van der Waals Complexes

1) W. H. Basinger, U. Schnupf, and M. C. Heaven, {Electronic Spectroscopy and Dynamics Of the CHID-Ne Van der Waals Complex}. Submitted to: Faraday Discussion No. 97. Structure and Dynamics of Van der Waals Complexes. 2) G. W. Lemire, M. J. Mcquaid, A. J. Kotlar, and R. C. Sausa, J. Chem. Phys., 1993, 99, 91.Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Emory UniversityRotationally resolved spectra for the $A^{2}\Delta -X^{2} \Pi$ and $B^{2}\Sigma -X^{2} \Pi$ transitions of $CH/D-Ne^{1}$ have been recorded. Bands of both the A-X and B-X complexes were observed in association with the monomer 0-0 transition. In addition, complex bands associated with B-X monomer 1-0 transition were also recorded. Analyses of the ro-vibronic structures show that the complex is weakly bound in both the ground (X) and excited (A,B) electronic states. Preliminary results from the analysis of the highly congested A-X bands indicate that intermolecular bond length is unchanged upon excitation. A more detailed analysis is in progress and will be addressed. Analysis of the bands in the B-X system indicate that excitation to the B state reduces the binding energy and lengthens the intermolecular bond. The rotational levels of the X state were characterized by half-integer quantum numbers. This is in contrast to the situation for $CH(X)-Ar^{2}$ where the ground state exhibits integer rotational quantum numbers. The n=2 and n=1, k=0 bands in the B-X system showed homogeneous line broading as a result of rotational predissociation of the CH-Ne complex. B-X complex band assignments, rotational constants, and predissociation lifetimes will be discussed. Calculations are currently in progress on A-X system of CH/D-Ne in order to elucidate the origins of the rich rotational contours observed. Details and progress of the calculation will be reported on