115 research outputs found
“Colours of the Dying Dolphin”: Nineteenth-Century Defenses of Literature and Mathematics
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Line and Number: Poetry and Mathematics in Nineteenth-Century Britain
No full textWhile mathematics is often associated with quantification, this dissertation aims to show that it can also offer powerful ways of thinking qualitatively about literary form. In particular, it tracks the development of different modes of formal thinking that are flexible enough to work across differences in medium, scale, and temporality, and which can unify forms undergoing change. In my first chapter, "Mathematical Ekphrasis," I show how nineteenth-century approaches to algebra and geometry - which conceptualize these fields as the sciences of time and space - align them with the mediums of poetry and painting respectively, arguing that coordinate geometry can be read as a kind of ekphrasis, in ways which not only illuminate mathematical aesthetics, but also Pre-Raphaelite art and literature. Chapter 2, "Vanishing Points," is centered around a personal connection between Christina Rossetti and Arthur Cayley, and explores how both poet and mathematician conceptualize space in a projective or "perspectival" fashion. Chapter 3, "Topological Poetics," argues that Gerard Manley Hopkins's poetry manifests a fundamentally topological approach to form, in which forms are defined not by their metrical properties, but by invariant features that persist throughout continuous transformations. Chapter 4 builds upon the association between algebra and temporality first broached in Chapter 1 to argue that number theory can offer a new vocabulary for discussing the form of poetic temporality, especially as expressed in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese and Aurora Leigh. Finally, the coda turns to methodological questions, using the debates surrounding computational proof in mathematics (arising out of the computer-based solution to the four-color theorem), and the digital humanities, in order to interrogate the values and methods upon which scholars in both fields base their work
The Octopus
No full textAn interview with author Krissy Kneen, with critical reflections on her book 'Triptych' (Text, 2011
Resuspended freeze-dried Nannochloropsis as a model laboratory system for concentrated fresh Nannochloropsis in ultrasound cell disruption experiments
No full textMicroalgae have rigid, complex cell walls hindering direct lipid extraction. Cell disruption techniques are used to rupture these cellular structures to increase lipid extraction. Researchers investigating the downstream processing of microalgae do not always have access to microalgal cultivation systems to generate large amounts of fresh microalgal biomass. Using resuspended freeze-dried microalgal biomass as a model laboratory system for concentrated fresh biomass during cell disruption experiments offers greater flexibility in experimental planning and omits investment costs of microalgal cultivation equipment. So far, it however remains unclear whether freeze-dried resuspended biomass can be used as a model laboratory system to represent concentrated fresh biomass during cell disruption and lipid extraction experiments. This paper thus evaluated the suitability of resuspended freeze-dried Nannochloropsis as a model laboratory system for concentrated fresh Nannochloropsis during cell disruption. Ultrasound assisted cell disruption was used as example cell disruption technique and lipid extraction efficiency and free fatty acid content were investigated. Tap water and 3% sodium chloride are both suitable resuspension media for the resuspension of freeze-dried Nannochloropsis. Resuspension duration should be limited (< 120 min) to prevent the formation of free fatty acids. The condition of the biomass (concentrated fresh, or resuspended freeze-dried) prior to ultrasound assisted cell disruption did not influence the resulting lipid extraction efficiency. Resuspended freeze-dried Nannochloropsis biomass in tap water or 3% sodium chloride can thus be used as a model laboratory system for fresh microalgal biomass during research on ultrasound assisted lipid extraction. The generalization of the results to other cultivation conditions, cell disruption techniques, components of interest or microalgal species should be carefully assessed.The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Flanders’ Food and funded by Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) through the cSBR
project EffSep (Grant number HBC.2019.0012)
Boycott!: Louise Imogen Guiney and the American Protective Association
No full textIrish-American poet and author Louise Imogen Guiney endured anti-Catholic discrimination in Boston during the 1890’s. Well known to contemporary Bostonians as both a writer and the daughter of an Irish Roman Catholic Civil War officer, Guiney was appointed postmaster in Auburndale in January 1894. She initially liked the job’s duties, pay, and stability. However, many residents of Auburndale, including those associated with the anti-Catholic American Protective Association, boycotted the post office by not buying stamps there. As a result, in October 1894 her salary was cut. Guiney’s friends subsequently led a counterattack that resulted in stamp purchases coming to Auburndale from Roman Catholics nationwide. Despite her reappointment to the postmaster position in 1897, Guiney’s ill health and dislike for the long hours of the job led to her resignation on 5 July 1897. In 1901 she moved to England, where she lived for the remainder of her life
Gray Display Typeface
No full textGray Display is a typeface based on a distinctive set of capital letters known as Oran Mor Monumental, designed by author and artist Alasdair Gray. Gray commissioned Edwin Pickstone, Imogen Ayres and Neil Mcguire to digitise and adjust his hand lettered capitals into type and to compliment these with lowercase letters, punctuation and numerals in order to create a fully functioning coherent typeface. Gray used the typeface for works such as his late partner Morag McAlpine's headstone as well as prints and other designs.
After his death it was used by BBC Scotland in a screencard to commemorate the author's passing and has gone on to be a key component in multiple works associated with the Alasdair Gray Archive such as the Alasdair Gray Stones which form a distinctive part of the Garscube Link Canal regeneration project.
The task of interpreting these artists letters into a coherent typeface was greatly aided by wise guidance from consultants Stefan Ellmer and Nicolas Sloan
Cool For You: Joan Didion, Renata Adler, and Elizabeth Hardwick
No full text© 2025 Isabella Imogen Constance Gullifer-LaurieCool is a term that defies conceptual fixity, evoking both intensity and restraint. In the latter half of the twentieth century, cool moved from being synonymous with the counterculture to the mainstream. Within the North-American cultural imaginary it signified a nonchalance and ironic rebelliousness at the same time as it summoned the effort of calculated detachment and conforming reserve. This thesis engages with this expansive, supple category of cool to consider the reception of the authorial persona and the textual production of three writers who shaped public discourse during this period: Joan Didion, Renata Adler, and Elizabeth Hardwick. Taking cool as an object of analysis, this thesis develops an embodied, biographical, paratextual literary criticism in order to produce new critical encounters with these writers, examining the relationship of style and celebrity to fiction, screenwriting, journalism, and criticism, with a focus on three novels: Didion’s Play It As It Lays (1970), Adler’s Speedboat (1976), and Hardwick’s Sleepless Nights (1979). This thesis elaborates on three aspects of coolness to advance its theoretical and textual engagement with each author, studying Didion’s allure, Adler’s attitude, and Hardwick’s authority
Investigating the Palm Oil Supply Chain at Oxford Brookes University's Headington Campus in Order to Examine the Geographies of Sustainable Palm Oil Production
Get PDFExploring the presence/absence of palm oil in Oxford Brookes’ Headington Campus restaurants, assessing the sustainability of its sources, and examining the wider procurement policy implications.
This paper aims to understand the presence/absence of palm oil in Oxford Brookes’ Headington Campus restaurants, assess the sustainability of its sources and examine the wider procurement policy implications. Oxford Brookes was the first ‘fair trade university’ in 2003, and has a commitment to sustainability. The lack of literature on traceability of palm oil demands research to better understand the palm oil supply chain in UK organisations such as universities. Palm oil is in over 50% of prepared food in the UK and is the most produced and consumed vegetable oil in the world (WWF, 2017). Palm oil has serious effects on the environment and ecosystems in regions where it is produced, and a number of organisations exist with varying aims and requirements on sustainable palm oil. Firstly, this research will trace the palm oil in the Oxford Brookes’ supply chain and identifying the geographic region from where the palm oil was sourced and whether it is sourced sustainably or not. Secondly, the presence/absence of sustainable and conventional (i.e. non-sustainable) palm oil in the Oxford Brookes supply chain will be explained. Here, things to explore include why Oxford Brookes has a sustainable policy, whether the university has chosen to reduce palm oil from their supply chain and source from other vegetable oils. Data will also be obtained from semi-structured interviews with the suppliers and Brookes Procurement. This paper will highlight the lack of transparency in the palm oil supply chain and explore organisations in place that aim to increase traceability
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