Remote controlled QF16–USAF

 

20 French Phrases You Should Be Using

 

20 French Phrases You Should Be Using   As much as 30 percent of the English language—or roughly one in three English words—is believed to be derived directly from French. It’s a surprisingly high figure due in part to the Norman Conquest of 1066 which made French the language of the law, finance, government, the military, and the ruling classes in England and effectively doubled our vocabulary overnight. But the popularity of French culture and French literature among English speakers has also given our language a whole host of other words and phrases—like mardi gras, avant garde, déjà vu, and femme fatale—that are now so naturalized in English that they can be used without a second thought. Alongside everyday examples like these, however, English has also adopted a number of much less familiar French phrases that, despite their potential usefulness, go tragically underused. So why not add a little je ne sais quoi to your everyday conversation with these 20 little-known French expressions? 1. À LA DÉBANDADE À la basically means “in the style of” or “according to,” and is the root of phrases like à la mode (“stylish”), and à la carte (“on the menu”). À la débandade—literally “like a stampede”—was originally a military term dating from the 18th century, when it was first used to refer to an informal or random course of action, or else a disorderly, scattering retreat or rout. More recently it’s come to be used figuratively in English to describe a disorderly or chaotic mess. 2. AMOUR FOU Used in English since the early 1900s, an amour fou is an uncontrollable and obsessive passion for someone, and in particular one that is not reciprocated. It literally means “insane love.” 3. L’APPEL DU VIDE Alongside l’esprit de l’escalier (more on that later), the French expression l’appel du vide often makes its way onto lists of foreign words and phrases that have no real English equivalent. It literally means “the call of the void,” but in practice it’s usually explained as the bizarre inclination some people have for doing something dangerous or deadly, no matter how foolish they know it is. So when you’re standing on a beach, l’appel du vide is the voice that tells you to swim away and never come back. When standing on a clifftop, l’appel du vide tells you to throw yourself off. There mightn’t be an obvious English equivalent, but the concept of l’appel du vide is related to the psychological notion of intrusive thoughts, and the mythological song of the Siren blamed for luring sailors to their doom. 4. APRÈS MOI, LE DÉLUGE Après moi, le déluge means “after me, the flood,” and is used to refer to a person’s irresponsible or selfish lack of concern in what will happen after they have gone or moved on. Today it’s often associated with politicians and CEOs looking to secure their own interests at the expense of other people’s, but popular history claims the words were first used by the French king Louis XV, who repeatedly disregarded warnings of discontent among the French people in the lead up to the French Revolution. When the Revolution finally broke out in 1789 (fifteen years after Louis’s death), it eventually led to the execution of his grandson, King Louis XVI, in 1793. 5. CHERCHEZ LA FEMME Literally meaning “look for the woman,” cherchez la femme is used in English to imply that if a man is seen acting out of character, then a woman will likely be the cause of it—find her, and the issue will be resolved. Although the origins of the phrase are a mystery, it’s often credited to the French author Alexandre Dumas, whose crime drama Les Mohicans de Paris (1854) contains its first written record: “There is a woman in all cases; as soon as a report is brought to me I say, ‘Cherchez la femme!’” 6. COUP DE FOUDRE Coup de foudre is the French term for a thunderbolt or strike of lightning, but it’s been used figuratively in English since the late 1700s to mean love at first sight. 7. L’ESPRIT DE L’ESCALIER Known less romantically as “staircase wit” in English, l’esprit de l’escalier is the frustrating phenomenon of coming up with the perfect observation or comeback after the opportunity to use it has passed. The phrase was apparently coined by the 18th century French writer Diderot, who wrote in 1773 that while visiting the French finance minister Jacques Necker, a comment was made to which Diderot was unable to respond. “A sensitive man […] overcome by the argument leveled against him,” he wrote, “becomes confused and can only think clearly again at the bottom of the staircase.” 8. HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE “Shame on him who thinks badly of it,” warns the old Norman French saying honi soit qui mal y pense, which has been used in English to discourage preemptively or unjustly talking something down since the early Middle Ages. The saying has been the motto of The Order of the Garter, the oldest and most prestigious honor awarded in Great Britain, since it was introduced in 1348. 9. MAUVAIS QUART D’HEURE As well as having your fifteen minutes of fame, you can also have your mauvais quart d’heure (or your “bad quarter of an hour”)—a brief but embarrassing, upsetting, or demoralizing experience. 10. MAUVAISE HONTE Mauvaise honte literally means “bad shame.” In English it’s often used simply to mean bashfulness or extreme shyness, but in its earliest and original sense mauvaise honte has been used since the 18th century to refer to false or effected modesty, in which someone pretends to have a low opinion of themselves or their abilities. 11. MISE EN ABYME The French word mise essentially means “that which is put,” and as such is the origin of a number of phrases that refer to things being deliberately placed or arranged: a mise en scène is the dressing of a theatrical stage, a mise en page is the design or layout of a book or page of text, and mise en place is the preparation and organization of all of your ingredients before you start to cook. Mise en abyme is a much less familiar expression that was originally only used in heraldry: the abyme is the center segment of a shield or a coat of arms, and in a mise en abyme this central section is decorated with a smaller image of the same shield. So because this means that this small central image must in turn also contain a small central image of itself (which must in turn also contain the same image, and so on, and so on), the phrase mise en abyme (“put into the abyss”) is used to refer to the mindboggling visual effect of a recurring image containing itself into infinity—like a mirror reflected in a mirror. 12. NOSTALGIE DE LA BOUE The phrase nostalgie de la boue was coined by the French dramatist Émile Augier in 1855, who used it to refer to a person’s fondness for cruel, crude, depraved, or humiliating things. Its meaning has extended over time however, so that today a nostalgie de la boue is often used more loosely to refer to a desire to live a simpler, downsized, or less indulgent life—it literally means “a yearning for the mud.” 13. PLUS ÇA CHANGE In 1849 an article appeared in a satirical French magazine that denounced the country’s current political situation. Written by a French journalist named Alphonse Karr, the article pessimistically concluded that plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, or “the more it changes, the more it is the same thing.” Karr’s words soon stuck and by the early 1900s plus ça change had even been adopted into English as a motto indicating a world-weary acceptance of the current state of affairs—although things might appear to change or improve, beneath it all they remain just as bad as before. 14. POUR ENCOURAGER LES AUTRES The ironic expression pour encourager les autres—meaning “so as to encourage the others”—actually refers to an action carried out to discourage any future unrest or rebellion. It was first used in this context by French journalists in the 18th century following the execution of an English admiral named John Byng. After a long and well-respected naval career, Byng was court-marshaled by the Royal Navy in 1757 for having apparently failed to do his utmost in preventing the French from invading the British-held island of Minorca in the western Mediterranean. Although the charges brought against Byng were trumped-up (and, according to some, politically motivated)—and despite even King George II himself being petitioned to overturn Byng’s death sentence—he was executed by firing squad on board his own ship in Portsmouth Harbour on 14 March 1757. Understandably, the entire situation proved hugely controversial in England, and at the height of Britain’s Seven Years’ War against France became a major news story and source of much anti-British propaganda all across Europe. 15. RECULER POUR MIEUX SAUTER If you reculer pour mieux sauter, then you literally “draw back in order to leap better.” Derived from an old French proverb, the phrase is used figuratively in both French and English to refer to a temporary withdrawal or pause in action that allows for time to regroup or reassess a situation, and therefore make a better attempt at it in the future. 16. REVENONS À NOS MOUTONS You’d be forgiven for not quite understanding why someone might say “let us return to our sheep” mid-conversation, but revenons à nos moutons has been used figuratively in English for more than 400 years to mean “let us return to the matter at hand.” The phrase comes from a 15th century French farce, La Farce de Maître Pierre Pathelin, that became one of the most popular stage comedies of its day. It’s this popularity that no doubt helped this line—taken from a central courtroom scene in which one character, accused of stealing sheep, is advised by his lawyer to answer all of the prosecutor’s questions by baaing—to catch on in the language. 17. ROI FAINÉANT Fainéant is basically the French equivalent of a lazybones or a do-nothing, which makes a roi fainéant literally a “do-nothing king.” The term dates back to the 16th century in France, but has been used since the 1700s in English to refer to a monarch or leader who has no real power and instead acts merely as a figurehead, or as a symbol of power or authority. 18. TANT BIEN QUE MAL Tant bien que mal has been used in English since the 18th century to describe anything that is only partly or moderately successful. It literally means “as well as badly.” 19. VENTRE À TERRE Ventre à terre literally means “belly to the ground” in French, and so taken literally it can be used simply to describe someone or something lying face down. Originally, however, it was a term from horse racing, and referred to a horse going at full gallop—so fast that its forelegs are thrown out in front, its hind legs are thrown out backwards, and its belly is directly above the ground. Doing something ventre à terre, ultimately, means doing it at full speed. 20. VIOLON D’INGRES Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker is also a trained operatic tenor. Condoleezza Rice is also a concert pianist. And the acclaimed 18th-19th century French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres also just happened to be an exceptionally talented violinist. Because he was so skilled in two entirely different fields, Ingres inspired the French expression violon d’Ingres (literally “Ingres’s violin”), which refers to a hidden talent or pastime, far outside of what you are best known for, and in which you are just as knowledgeable or adept.

Psychology of food choice: Challenging the status quo–Republishing

 

Researchers are challenging conventional beliefs about the effectiveness of traditional strategies for encouraging healthy eating. The symposium, "Challenging Misconceptions About the Psychology of Food Choice," includes four presentations that tackle issues such as the harmfulness of weight-stigma, encouraging healthy choices, and strategies to help children and teens. The symposium is featured at the SPSP 16th Annual Convention in Long Beach, California. Helping kids eat more vegetables A study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, observed whether or not photographs of vegetables on a school lunch tray had an impact on the amount of vegetables eaten. The study found that placing photos of carrots and green beans did increase the amounts of vegetables eaten during lunch, but it still was not at levels consistent with government-recommended dietary guidelines. Researchers at the University of Minnesota are now studying other simple methods that schools could utilize to encourage eating vegetables during lunch. Their research will be published in the coming year. "[Our] research suggests that little changes to the lunchroom setting can help kids eat more vegetables. For example, you can help kids eat more vegetables by providing vegetables before you offer any other food," explains researcher Traci Mann. Children who were given vegetables to eat first before any other food ate more than children who were provided all food options at once. Challenging teens' attitudes Researchers at the University of California at San Diego and the University of Texas at Austin are investigating ways to motivate teenagers to make healthier food and drink choices. "Teenagers are notoriously uninterested in healthy eating," says lead researcher Christopher Bryan. In response to that disinterest, Bryan and his colleagues have taken a novel approach at motivating teens. "Instead of trying to convince teens to care about something they don't care about, we link healthy eating to things they already care about," Bryan explains. The researchers are framing the intervention as an expose of deceptive food marketing practices designed to manipulate teens to eat junk food, for instance, explaining how companies engineer junk food to be as addictive as possible and use dishonest labeling to make products appear healthier than they are. "We find that by changing the way teens think about healthy eating, we're able to increase the extent to which teens want to see themselves as healthy eaters...and by doing that, we're able to increase the rate at which teens make healthy choices," says Bryan. The researchers are continuing to study whether their approach can effectively change teens' behavior long-term. Downsides of calorie counting Counting calories may negatively impact an individual's ability to focus, according to researchers at the University of California at San Diego, Harvard University, and Princeton University. "If you're counting calories, seemingly innocuous reminders of tempting, high-calorie food--such as an empty donut box in the middle of a conference table--can lead to worse performance on difficult tests of attention and reasoning ability," says lead researcher Aimee Chabot. Many employers often provide indulgent food in meetings with the intention of motivating their staff, but that may be having an unintended negative effect. The researchers suggest that individuals looking to reduce their calorie intake avoid counting calories and instead opt for simpler strategies, such as avoiding added sugars or not eating after 7 p.m. The research is still preliminary, and more data is being collected to replicate the initial results and examine the effect of the presence of actual tempting food on cognitive performance. Effects of weight shaming Weight-loss campaigns and programs often portray overweight and obese individuals negatively. Researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara have found that media messages that stigmatize obesity had negative behavioral and impacts on overweight participants. The research was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. "Our research shows that weight stigma leads to behavioral responses that can ironically contribute to weight gain," says co-author Jeffrey Hunger. The researchers observed that self-perceived overweight women who read a weight-stigmatizing news article consumed more high-calorie snack foods compared to overweight women who read a neutral article. "Simply reading about the potential for weight stigma was enough to impair self-regulation among overweight women," explains Hunger. The research suggests that the mere threat of stigma can have important behavioral effects, even in cases where an individual does not directly experience weight-based mistreatment. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Society for Personality and Social Psychology. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Marla Reicks, Joseph P. Redden, Traci Mann, Elton Mykerezi, Zata Vickers. Photographs in Lunch Tray Compartments and Vegetable Consumption Among Children in Elementary School Cafeterias. JAMA, 2012; 307 (8) DOI: 10.1001/jama.2012.170

Os primeiros notebooks

 

The amazing technicolor liquid nanolaser

 

A color of a new nanolaser can be altered in real time thanks to the use of liquid dyes (Image: Shutterstock) A new nanoscale plasmon laser developed at Northwestern University changes color in real time through a process as simple as swapping one liquid dye for another. The scientists responsible for the technology claim this is the world's first liquid nanoscale laser, and it could find uses in medical diagnostics as well as military or security applications. Unlike conventional lasers, which use mirrors to bounce light back and forth through a gain medium (kind of like an amplifier), this new nanolaser contains an array of reflective gold nanoparticles that accomplish the same feat on a considerably smaller scale. Previously-developed nanolasers used solid gain materials, which provide a fixed wavelength, but the Northwestern team used a liquid (more specifically, an organic dye) instead. Liquid nanolasers have two big advantages. One is that they can be kept stable for a longer period of time because the liquid gain materials can be constantly replenished. The other is that their wavelength is tunable. To change the wavelength – which is to change the color – you need only change either the liquid dye (potentially big change) or the solvent that the dye is dissolved in (more moderate change), which are housed in a microfluidic channel above the laser’s cavity. "We believe this work represents a conceptual and practical engineering advance for on-demand, reversible control of light from nanoscopic sources," said lead researcher Teri W. Odom. Liquid nanolasers could led to new "lab on a chip" devices for medical diagnoses because their sensitivity is so great that they can enhance and detect weak physical and chemical processes as they occur on a nanoscale. Beyond that, they may be useful in optoelectronic integrated circuits and data storage. A paper describing the research was published in the journal Nature Communications. Source: Northwestern University

McDonnell Douglas F-15

 

McDonnell Douglas F-15

 

Testing the waters: 1,4-Dioxane in North Carolina's Cape Fear River Basin

 

Environmental engineers play vital role in determining next steps to safeguard drinking water It was an email from a colleague that tipped off environmental engineer Detlef Knappe of possible 1,4-dioxane contamination in the Cape Fear River Basin, North Carolina's largest watershed and a source of drinking water for communities across the state. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has classified 1,4-dioxane as a probable human carcinogen. It is an industrial solvent used in the textile and paper industries and a by-product of manufacturing processes involving ethylene oxide, such as the production of certain plastics and surfactants used in laundry detergents and shampoos. With support from a National Science Foundation (NSF) RAPID grant, Knappe and his team at North Carolina State University (NCSU) have begun to identify 1,4-dioxane sources and how 1,4-dioxane impacts drinking water quality. (RAPID is short for Grants for Rapid Response Research.) Another research goal is to determine whether home filtration devices effectively remove 1, 4-dioxane from tap water and how long those filters will last. Knappe is also working with managers at water treatment plants and state policymakers in North Carolina to improve testing and treatment standards for 1,4-dioxane. Knappe says so far, the research team has identified three North Carolina communities as key sources of 1,4-dioxane and those communities are now working with the state and NCSU to identify which facilities are the source of the contamination. He says the team is also evaluating point-of-use devices, such as pitcher and refrigerator filters, and has identified a new adsorbent that is quite effective for 1,4-dioxane removal. The research in this episode was supported by NSF award #1449768, RAPID; GOALI: Sources of 1,4-Dioxane in the Cape Fear River Watershed of North Carolina and Treatment Options for 1,4-Dioxane Control. GOALI is NSF's Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry program. Miles O'Brien, Science Nation Correspondent Ann Kellan, Science Nation Producer

Another side of History

 

Most of us know a lot about history, right?  Well, take a look at this collection of pictures that show history from a slightly different angle.

 

 

 

 

 

Finding New Life for First-Line Antibiotics

 

April 23, 2015 A simple strategy could make first-line antibiotics more effective against resistant bacteria. By Ken Kingery Researchers have identified a single, simple metric to inform medication regimen design that could bring an entire arsenal of first-line antibiotics back into the fight against drug-resistant pathogens. A computer simulation created by Hannah Meredith, a biomedical engineering graduate fellow at Duke University, revealed that a regimen based on a pathogen’s recovery time could eliminate an otherwise resistant strain of bacteria. In theory, a database of recovery times for bacterial and antibiotic combinations could allow first-line antibiotics to clear many resistant infections. Hannah Meredith Meredith has already begun lab work to create such a database, and early tests are confirming her model’s predictions. The study appears in PLOS Computational Biology on April 23, 2015. “Bacteria are forming resistance to antibiotics faster than we can make new ones, so there is a real need to use the antibiotics that are already on the market more efficiently,” said Meredith. “We hope this research will help hospitals improve patient outcomes while also making our antibiotics last as long as possible.” The computer simulation models the relationship between bacteria, antibiotics and a method of resistance called beta-lactamase—an enzyme that degrades beta-lactam antibiotics, one of the largest and most-used classes of antibiotics. Many beta-lactam antibiotics are currently disregarded out of concern for the infection being completely resistant to that type of antibiotic—even if the antibiotic appeared to be effective in the lab. The new model, however, reveals that the infection might be temporarily sensitive to the antibiotic before the beta-lactamase degrades the drug and allows the infection to recover. “You can think of this as a race between the cells and the antibiotics,” said Lingchong You, the Paul Ruffin Scarborough Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke and Meredith’s advisor. “Before their beta-lactamase degrades the antibiotics, the cells are still sensitive and can be killed. But the antibiotics degrade faster than the cell population declines, allowing some cells to survive and repopulate.” When clinicians realize an infection is resistant, they often skip straight to some of the strongest antibiotics available. But the study indicates that if they instead changed the dosing frequency of first-line antibiotics such that each dose is delivered while the bacteria are weakened during their recovery period, some infections could be cleared without skipping to the last resort. Lingchong You Doctors also need to be careful, however, not to wreck native populations of bacteria vital to human health. A database detailing the responses of different strains to different antibiotics could allow Meredith’s computer model to determine the most efficient regimen to keep total exposure to a minimum. It could also indicate if multiple doses would not work, letting clinicians know when it is time to call in the heavy artillery. “There’s already a lot of work already being done to determine antibiotic dosing schedules,” said You. “But that typically involves building a model based on many complex biological mechanisms. This takes a lot of time, and there are thousands of constantly evolving bacterial strains, making it impossible for researchers to catch up. We’re trying to see if this one, easy-to-test metric of recovery time can make a good enough prediction without years of study.” Meredith has already begun laboratory work to answer this question and validate her computational model. She has received 80 well-known antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains from Duke Medicine and is putting her theory to the test. And the early results are promising. “Our preliminary data has confirmed many of the clinical aspects of the model’s predictions, so we are tremendously excited by those,” said Meredith. “If this strategy is successful, it could potentially reintroduce a large number of first-line antibiotics for patient treatment.” This work was funded by the National Science Foundation (CBET-0953202), the National Institutes of Health (1R01GM098642, 1RO1GM110494), a DuPont Young Professorship award, a David and Lucile Packard Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, and the Howard G. Clark Fellowship. “Bacterial Temporal Dynamics Enable Optimal Design of Antibiotic Treatment,” Hannah R. Meredith, Allison J. Lopatkin, Deverick J. Anderson, Lingchong You. PLOS Computational Biology, 2015, 11(4): e1004201. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004201

New research into health benefits of coffee

 

Fri, 05/01/2015 Monash Univ. New research has brought us closer to being able to understand the health benefits of coffee. Monash Univ. researchers, in collaboration with Italian coffee roasting company Illycaffè, have conducted the most comprehensive study to date on how free radicals and antioxidants behave during every stage of the coffee brewing process, from intact bean to coffee brew. The team observed the behavior of free radicals—unstable molecules that seek electrons for stability and are known to cause cellular and DNA damage in the human body—in the coffee brewing process. For the first time, they discovered that under certain conditions coffee can act as an antioxidant, a compound found in foods that helps stabilize free radicals. The findings, published in PLOS ONE, will lead to a deeper understanding of the brewing process, as well as the potential health benefits of coffee. Chief Chemist of Illycaffè, Dr. Luciano Navarini, approached Monash physicist Dr. Gordon Troup, School of Physics and Astronomy, and his team in 2012 to conduct the research using state-of-the-art EPR (Electron Paramagnetic Resonance) Spectroscopy. “Dr. Troup was one of the first scientists to discover free radicals in coffee in 1988 and so it made sense for Illycaffè—a world-leading coffee roasting company actively involved in coffee research—to collaborate with Dr. Troup and his team on this significant piece of research into free radical and antioxidant behavior in coffee,” Dr. Navarini said. “The most important aim of this research was to better understand the development of stable free radicals during the roasting process and the possible influence exerted by developed radicals on the well-documented coffee antioxidant properties. We also wanted to evidence possible coffee constituents as a source of antioxidant activity.” Dr. Troup worked with a team of researchers including Monash alumnus Dr. Simon Drew from the Univ. of Melbourne, who carried out the spectroscopy at the Univ. of Melbourne. “Our research studied both the Arabica coffee bean itself and what happens to its stable free radical and antioxidant properties during the brewing process,” Dr. Troup said. “The findings provide a better understanding of the potential health benefits of coffee, as well as a deeper knowledge of the roasting process—ultimately leading to the highest quality cup of coffee.” Source: Monash Univ.