Science through English or English through science?

Il n’est pas facile de motiver les apprenants de bon niveau, surtout dans l’environnement d’une École plus que dans le milieu du travail. Cet article rend compte de deux nouveaux cours d’anglais scientifique se rapportant à la télévision analogique et aux images numérisées. De nombreux points sont traités, non seulement la question très discutée de savoir quelle connaissance de la discipline scientifique de ses étudiants le professeur d’anglais de spécialité doit avoir, mais aussi celle de ce qu’on peut apprendre de spécialistes dont la maîtrise de l’anglais est imparfaite. Cependant, la question la plus importante demeure celle de savoir si les étudiants apprennent l’anglais grâce à la science, ou l’inverse.It is often difficult to motivate advanced learners, particularly in an academic setting rather than a practical working environment. We report on new specialised scientific courses dealing with analogue television and digital images. Many issues are raised, covering not only the much debated question about the extent to which the ESP teacher should be acquainted with the scientific discipline of his/her students, but also that of learning from specialists whose command of English is not perfect. Perhaps the most important issue raised however is whether the students are learning English through science or science through English

Availability of veterinary medicine: reality, challenges and prospects

In daily practice veterinarians are often confronted to a lack of drugs to treat the animal they examine. This situation is the result of economic and regulatory constraints. The small size of the veterinary market limits the return on investment and reduces innovation. The application of the Maximal Limits of Residues regulation improved the protection of the consumer of food from animal origin but was responsible for the impoverishment of the therapeutic arsenal in animal care and productions. Practitioners have to use the cascade system every day while it was initially planned for only exceptional situations of therapeutic deficiency. Import of veterinary drugs and the use of autogenous vaccines allow to mitigate part of the shortcomings. Improving durably the situation will require adaptations in both technical (extrapolation of the MLR, adaptation of withdrawal period for the cascade) and economic aspects (through the extension of the length of protection of the registration certificate for example).Dans son exercice quotidien le vétérinaire praticien est souvent confronté à un manque de médicament vétérinaire pour soigner l'animal qu'il consulte. Cette situation est la résultante de contraintes économiques et de contraintes réglementaires. L'étroitesse du marché vétérinaire limite le retour sur investissement et freine l'innovation. L'application du règlement relatif aux Limites Maximales de Résidus a permis d'améliorer la protection du consommateur de denrées animales mais est responsable de l'appauvrissement de l'arsenal thérapeutique en productions animales. Les praticiens doivent recourir quotidiennement à la cascade alors que celle-ci était initialement prévue pour répondre à quelques situations exceptionnelles de carence thérapeutique. L'importation de médicaments et les autovaccins sont des solutions pour pallier certains manques. Pour améliorer durablement la situation, des aménagements sont nécessaires aussi bien sur le plan technique (extrapolation des LMR, adaptation des temps d'attente dans le cadre de la cascade) que sur le plan économique (à travers l'allongement de la durée de protection des AMM par exemple)

Where does the methane entrapped in Antarctic sea ice come from?

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Attenuation of laboratory-induced stress in humans after acute administration of melissa officinalis (lemon balm).

Objective: Melissa officinalis (lemon balm) is contemporaneously used as a mild sedative and/or calming agent. Although recent research has demonstrated modulation of mood in keeping with these roles, no studies to date have directly investigated the effects of this herbal medication on laboratory-induced psychological stress. Methods: In this double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, balanced crossover experiment, 18 healthy volunteers received two separate single doses of a standardized M. officinalis extract (300 mg, 600 mg) and a placebo, on separate days separated by a 7-day washout period. Modulation of mood was assessed during predose and 1-hour postdose completions of a 20-minute version of the Defined Intensity Stressor Simulation (DISS) battery. Cognitive performance on the four concurrent tasks of the battery was also assessed. Results: The results showed that the 600-mg dose of Melissa ameliorated the negative mood effects of the DISS, with significantly increased self-ratings of calmness and reduced self-ratings of alertness. In addition, a significant increase in the speed of mathematical processing, with no reduction in accuracy, was observed after ingestion of the 300-mg dose. Conclusion: These results suggest that the potential for M. officinalis to mitigate the effects of stress deserves further investigation

Sources and sinks of methane in sea ice: Insights from stable isotopes

We report on methane (CH4) stable isotope (d13C and d2 H) measurements from landfast sea ice collected near Barrow (Utqiagvik, Alaska) and Cape Evans (Antarctica) over the winter-to-spring transition. These measurements provide novel insights into pathways of CH4 production and consumption in sea ice. We found substantial differences between the two sites. Sea ice overlying the shallow shelf of Barrow was supersaturated in CH4 with a clear microbial origin, most likely from methanogenesis in the sediments. We estimated that in situ CH4 oxidation consumed a substantial fraction of the CH4 being supplied to the sea ice, partly explaining the large range of isotopic values observed (d13C between –68.5 and –48.5 ‰ and d2 H between –246 and –104 ‰). Sea ice at Cape Evans was also supersaturated in CH4 but with surprisingly high d13C values (between –46.9 and –13.0 ‰), whereas d2 H values (between –313 and –113 ‰) were in the range of those observed at Barrow.These are the first measurements of CH4 isotopic composition in Antarctic sea ice. Our data set suggests a potential combination of a hydrothermal source, in the vicinity of the Mount Erebus, with aerobic CH4 formation in sea ice, although the metabolic pathway for the latter still needs to be elucidated. Our observations show that sea ice needs to be considered as an active biogeochemical interface, contributing to CH4 production and consumption, which disputes the standing paradigm that sea ice is an inert barrier passively accumulating CH4 at the ocean-atmosphere boundary

ELSA Italy

In the last 50 years, Italy has experienced a relevant transformation, starting from an emigrant nation (according to the last statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, there are more than 4.636.647 Italians still living abroad) to become an immigrant destination. From 1970 until now, migrant citizens with regular residence permits in Italy have increased, with a rate of growth that looks almost unstoppable: at the beginning of 2017, there were more than 5,047,028 foreign nationals resident in Italy. This numbers, added to the illegal immigrants whose numbers are difficult to define, outline a complex situation, characterized by immigrant flows from almost 200 different countries, especially Central Eastern Europe (Albania, Romania and Ukraine), Northern Africa (Morocco), China and the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka). This historically important phenomenon requires in-depth analysis in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the Italian legislation and intervention policies, and to find concrete solutions to help immigrants settling in our country