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14 Oct 2020: Activity 1 - How does the immune system work? The immune system did not evolve to stop humans carrying out organ transplants. Instead we evolved it over millions of years to stop us being invaded and attacked by a variety of prokaryotic and

14 Oct 2020: Activity 3 - Why is the Major Histocompatibility Complex so important? We saw in resource 2 that fetal trophoblast cells are perilously exposed to the maternal blood and immune system. So why are they not attacked as a foreign invader? Half of the

14 Oct 2020: Activity 4 - How might the mammalian fetus avoid immune attack? If you have read the other three resources for this topic, you will now be aware of the potential problem facing the embryo/fetus. Its trophoblast cells, presumably bearing

18 Oct 2020:

18 Oct 2020: Bone Identification Answers:. A – scapula. B – humerus. C – ulna. D – radius. E – carpal bones. F – metacarpal bones. G – phalanges. H – pelvis (composed of ilium, pubis and ischium). I – femur. J – tibia. K – fibula. L –

5 Oct 2020: Activity - Genetic Drift. There are actually two processes by which organisms evolve at the genetic level. One is. through natural selection and you will be familiar with this through examples of antibiotic. resistance in bacteria and industrial

5 Oct 2020: Activity - Continuous Genetic Variation. Throughout most A-level courses, you will be introduced to traits whose variation is. apparently controlled by one or, just a small number of genes. For instance, when you learn. about dominance, you will

5 Oct 2020: Activity - Gene-Environment Interactions. In the previous section, we investigated evolution in polygenic traits. Things get even more. complicated when we consider that the environment itself can influence how genes affect a. trait, causing even

5 Oct 2020: Activity - Heritability. Although the nature vs nurture debate is not a useful way of considering variation, we can. find out how much of the phenotypic variation in a trait is due to genetic causes and how. much of the variation in a trait is due

5 Oct 2020: Activity – Heat generation by brown adipose tissue. Brown adipose tissue is an organ specialized for thermogenesis, or making heat. Brown. adipose tissue plays a role in the overall regulation of body temperature, which is. coordinated by the

5 Oct 2020: Activity – Controlling brown adipose tissue thermogenesis. Scientists have learned a lot about brown adipose tissue by studying mice at cold. temperatures. Read the sections called “Classical nonshivering thermogenesis” and “The mechanism of.

5 Oct 2020: Activity – Therapeutic potential of brown adipose tissue. This activity is a bit different from the rest. Now that you know about white and brown. adipose tissue, it’s time to think about how this knowledge could be applied to treat human.

5 Oct 2020: Activity – Seeking solutions from nature. One way of designing with biomimicry is to start with an engineering problem and brainstorm. creatures or systems in nature that have overcome a similar challenge, as they may provide. a solution. Let’s

5 Oct 2020: Activity – Using Nature to Inspire. Another way of designing with biomimicry is to find a fascinating process or animal in nature. and use its features to inspire a totally new design. Let’s practice with two examples! Challenge 1: You sit

5 Oct 2020: Activity – Biomimicry at work today. Biomimicry is a transdisciplinary field, which means it incorporates knowledge from biologists,. doctors, mathematicians, chemists, architects, physicists, and more. Engineering applies. science and technology

5 Oct 2020: Activity - Molecular Dynamics Simulations. How can we understand what is happening at an atomic or molecular. scale? With computers, of course! In the 1950s, researchers developed methods to study atomic. systems by representing each atom as a rigid

5 Oct 2020: Activity - Applications of Molecular Dynamics. Molecular dynamics is an important tool because it allows us to examine systems at conditions. (temperature, pressure, etc.) that may not be feasible in a hands-on experiment. This is. important for

1 Oct 2020: Activity - Was Malthus right? In one sense, it is hard to deny that a high population could place a heavy demand on food. and other resources, so Malthus’ warning about overpopulation should not be dismissed. However, lots of scholars have found

1 Oct 2020: Activity - Tragedy of the Commons. The resources on overpopulation helped you to consider the strain placed on resources by a. growing population. Garrett Hardin used some Malthusian-style principles to put forward his. theory of the ‘Tragedy of

1 Oct 2020: Activity - Drama of the Commons. While Hardin’s theory of the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’ is still widely talked about in. Geography, scholars have demonstrated that it contains several flaws. One of the most. famous scholars to criticise Hardin

6 Oct 2020: Activity – Case Study - Madagascar. Madagascar has incredibly high biodiversity, and the number of species discovered on the. island is still rising. The link below is to an article in The Guardian newspaper which describes the continued.

6 Oct 2020: Activity – Links between geographical knowledge and conservation science. This section assumes that you already know something about what has been described as. the current “biodiversity crisis”. If you haven’t read or heard very much about

6 Oct 2020: Activity – Taking it further. Here are few more things for you to think about if this topic has interested you, and some. more resources for you to use. Biodiversity Hotspots are important in identifying areas where conservation efforts should be.

6 Oct 2020: Activity – Maps and the Geographical Imagination Geography is sometimes described as earth description. But the political geographers Joe Painter and Alex Jeffrey have noted that geography is less about describing the earth as if seen through a

6 Oct 2020: Activity – Maps and Power. We have seen how maps help us make sense of the world. We should reflect on the. importance of deciding to map something. But we must also consider how such maps were. and are produced. What became known as the Great

6 Oct 2020: Activity – Maps and Policy. Maps that show clear trends can be very useful for policy makers. It is quite common to see maps of economic and social indicators. The publication of the 2011 census, for example, was accompanied by a variety of maps (e

6 Oct 2020: Activity – Maps and Technology. Following on from our discussion of policy, let’s consider the use of technology in helping to. communicate geographical patterns to different audiences. There is no doubt that. technology has changed how we view

6 Oct 2020: Activity – Other Cartographical Traditions and Imaginations. This topic has largely (though not explicitly) considered maps that were produced in the. western world. The kinds of cartographic conventions that we have met here are not. necessarily

2 Oct 2020: Activity 1 – The epidemiology and classification of diabetes mellitus. Who gets Type 2 diabetes mellitus? As a clinician, it is important to know whom you are treating. The following report might be. helpful in this aspect:. http://www.diabetes.org

2 Oct 2020: Activity 2 – Understanding the symptoms and complications of Type 2. diabetes mellitus. What initial symptoms do diabetic patients report, and why? Doctors will enquire about certain symptoms when taking a patient’s medical history, to.

2 Oct 2020: Activity 3 – Understanding insulin resistance. Defining insulin sensitivity. Receptors for insulin are present on target cells where insulin normally acts. Insulin secreted. by the pancreas is transported by the bloodstream to target organs, where

2 Oct 2020: Activity 4 – How can we better manage insulin resistance in patients? Managing T2DM in patients. The clinical management of T2DM revolves around lifestyle modifications, such as having a. healthy diet and regular exercise (exercise increases

2 Oct 2020: Activity – The Birth of a Myth It soon became clear that Vespa was also offering the chance to be more independent not only at work, but also in spare time, enabling people to enjoy their freedom and transforming the life of many. In many ways

2 Oct 2020: Activity – The Icon The following two texts explain how the Vespa is not simply a scooter, but has become an iconic symbol of Italian design and of the particular socio-economic climate post-WWII. Please read the two texts and then move on to the

2 Oct 2020: Activity – Vespa and Cinema The following three examples will explore material from films that contributed to the popularity of Vespa over time. 1. La Vespa in Famous Films From its birth onwards, the Vespa scooter has had a main role in many

2 Oct 2020: Activity – Around Tuscany on an Old Vespa Taking an impromptu and unplanned field trip in Italy with a friend can be really fun: good food, beautiful scenery, sun-soaked beaches, hills and squares and, of course… a Vespa! In this blog entry, a

2 Oct 2020: Answer Sheet Activity 3 b) IB –IID – IIIA – IVC Activity 5 a) Vero o Falso? 1. Eleonora e Marco hanno fatto un giro in Vespa in Toscana due anni fa. Falso Hanno fatto il viaggio questa estate. 2. A Siena hanno visto il Palio. Falso Sono

6 Oct 2020: Activity 1 - Time Dilation. In relativity different observers can (correctly) disagree on the time between events. Put another way; “moving clocks tick slow” - What does this mean? Take a spaceship flying to Alpha Centauri (the sun’s nearest

6 Oct 2020: Activity 2 - Length Contraction. We have seen that time intervals between events appear to be different lengths depending. upon the relative speeds of observers in different inertial frames. Special relativity gets even. stranger still. If someone

6 Oct 2020: Activity 3 - The Lorentz Transformation. Lorentz transformations are the relativistic equivalent of the classical Galilean. transformation, where, due to time dilation and length contraction, there are added. complicating effects. We earlier said

6 Oct 2020: Worked Examples. Time Dilation. Imagine we had a spaceship which could instantaneously accelerate to whatever speed we. wanted (below the speed of light). Suppose we also found a star 10 000 light years (lyr) away which we wanted to visit. We decide

6 Oct 2020: Activity 1 - Crunching Numbers. First, let’s take a look at the figures for the ’Brexit’ Referendum of 23 June 2016. UK. voters voted by 52% to 48% to leave the European Union. The figures below are based on polling carried out by the polling

6 Oct 2020: Activity 2 - Explaining the Results. How do we explain these results? The link between education and voting behaviour may be. influenced by a wide array of factors, and teasing out their relative significance is not easy. Age. One factor we cannot

6 Oct 2020: Activity 3 - Looking Ahead. Politics in the UK is changing very rapidly, and it is difficult to predict what the political. landscape will look like a year from now, let along five, ten or twenty years in the future. However, we can try and think

11 Sep 2020: Bernoulli’s Principle. Bernoulli’s principle relates the pressure of a fluid to its elevation and speed. It is named after. the Swiss scientist Daniel Bernoulli who lived in the 18th century and did experiments looking. at how fluids moved. He

11 Sep 2020: Questions. Apply Bernoulli’s equation to answer the following questions. Question 1:. You have a horizontal hose through which water flows with a velocity of 1 m/s. If the pressure. of the water within the hose is 350,000 Pa, what do you estimate

11 Sep 2020: Solutions. Question 1:. Let’s designate within the hose to be location 1 and the hose nozzle to be location 2. We are given the following values in the question:. 𝑉1 = 1 m/s. 𝑃1 = 350,000 Pa. 𝜌 = 997 kg/m3. 𝑔 = 9.81 m/s2. 𝑃2 =

10 Sep 2020: Mechanisms of Epigenetics. Recap: chromatin structure. Each somatic human cell contains two meters of DNA, which has to be efficiently packaged. into nuclei 10-20 μm in diameter. If we were to scale the nucleus up to the size of a tennis. ball,

10 Sep 2020: X Chromosome Inactivation. Recap: sex chromosomes. Somatic human cells have 46 chromosomes: 22 pairs of autosomes and two sex. chromosomes (Figure 1). The pairs of autosomes contain copies of the same genes that. may be identical or very similar. In

10 Sep 2020: Inheritance. Inheritance through the cell cycle. The cell cycle poses a serious challenge to preservation of this fine-tuned chromatin state. Histones and all the other chromatin-binding proteins have to be removed to allow genome. replication, and