Rereading Frye: the published and unpublished works

Review of "Rereading Frye: The published and unpublished works" edited by David Boyd and Imre Salusinszk

Exeter College, Oxford lecture

Exeter College, Oxford lectur

Oxford lecture

Oxford lectur

Northrop Frye in context

“Diane Dubois takes a contextual approach to Northrop Frye’s work and claims that it is best assessed in relation to his biographical circumstances. In context and in specific details, Dubois’ book seeks to illuminate Frye’s œuvre as a personal, lifelong project. This volume successfully situates Frye’s work within the social, political, religious and philosophical conditions of the time and place of conception and writing. Dubois ranges from Frye’s critical utopia and views on criticism and education through the university, church and William Blake to politics and the Canadian and academic milieu. This book, which is particularly good at tracing Frye’s academic influences and his roots in Methodism and Canada, will have a strong appeal to an international audience of general readers, students, teachers and specialists. Frye is a key figure in the cultural and literary theory of the twentieth century, and Dubois’ accomplished discussion helps us to see his work anew.” Jonathan Hart, author of Northrop Frye: The Theoretical Imagination (1994), Interpreting Cultures (2006), Empires and Colonies (2008) and Literature, Theory, History (2011

Postcombustion CO2 Capture by Chemical Absorption: Screening of Aqueous Amine(s)-based solvents

AbstractThe purpose of our work was to evaluate separately the absorption and regeneration performances of different types of amine(s) based solvents (primary, secondary and tertiary alkanolamines, sterically hindered amines, non-cyclical tetramine and cyclical absorption activators) by carrying out screening tests using small scale apparatus: a gas-liquid contactor for absorption, namely a double-stirred cell, and a regeneration cell. Absorption and regeneration performances of the solvents were compared thanks to calculated absorption and regeneration efficiencies. Concerning the absorption results, the positive effect of an activator, and especially the cyclical di-amine piperazine (PZ), on the absorption performances of the different simple amine solutions was clearly highlighted. The activation of the secondary amine MMEA by PZ gives also higher absorption efficiencies.Regarding the regeneration tests, the better regeneration performances of tertiary and sterically hindered amines(MDEA and AMP) were confirmed. For the amines blends, higher regeneration performances were observed with PZ activated solutions than with PIP activated solutions.These absorption and regeneration results will be taken into account in the solvent selection for future combined absorption-regeneration tests

Screening tests of new hybrid solvents for the post-combustion CO2 capture processby chemical absorption

AbstractThis study focused on the screening of new hybrid solvents (mixture of a chemical (usually an amine) and a physical (ether, alcohol, etc.) solvent) for the post-combustion CO2 capture process by chemical absorption. Such scrubbing solutions aim at combining the advantages of the two components, namely: a low regeneration energy and a high absorption capacity of the physical solvent at intermediate CO2 partial pressures, a better absorption performances of the chemical solvent at low CO2 partial pressures and also high absorption kinetics due to chemical reactions with CO2. The innovative aspect of our approach was based on the use of acetals as physical components of the hybrid solvent. The purpose of our study was to characterize and compare these new hybrid solvents in terms of absorption and regeneration performances using two types of screening tests. Different blended solutions (composed of a conventional amine such as monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), 2-amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP)) and an acetal compound such as 2,5,7,10-tetraoxaundecane (TOU) were tested.Regarding the absorption performances, a double stirred cell reactor was used to compare the absorption efficiencies of the solvents at 298K. It was observed that the addition of the acetal compound improves significantly the absorption efficiencies, especially at the beginning of the batch absorption test, namely at low CO2 loadings of the solution. Meanwhile, regeneration tests were performed using a regeneration cell allowing to compare the regeneration efficiency of the solvents at fixed heating power (600W). The higher cyclic capacities and better regeneration efficiencies with acetals base solvents were also highlighted.Globally, this work confirms through this first step that new hybrid solvents, composed of amine(s) and acetal, could be a very promising alternative to classical solvents

Maintaining Quality in Online Learning Environments: Issues and Challenges

The online classroom continues to play an ever increasing role in higher education. There are proven, research-based pedagogical techniques available to instructors who want to create online courses that are both dynamic and engaging. With careful planning, online learning can provide students with a positive learning experience without sacrificing the academic quality of learning. Addressing security issues and challenges is vital to maintaining the desired academic rigor and quality. This paper discusses these important security issues and offers a variety of solutions for facilitating a secure learning environment

Crosslinguistic Developmental Consistency in the Composition of Toddlers' Internal State Vocabulary: Evidence from Four Languages

Mental state language, emerging in the second and third years of life in typically developing children, is one of the first signs of an explicit psychological understanding. While mental state vocabulary may serve a variety of conversational functions in discourse and thus might not always indicate psychological comprehension, there is evidence for genuine references to mental states (desires, knowledge, beliefs, and emotions) early in development across languages. This present study presents parental questionnaire data on the composition of 297 toddler-aged (30-to 32-month-olds) children's internal state vocabulary in four languages: Italian, German, English, and French. The results demonstrated that across languages expressions for physiological states (e.g., hungry and tired) were among the most varied, while children's vocabulary for cognitive entities (e.g., know and think) proved to be least varied. Further, consistent with studies on children's comprehension of these concepts, across languages children's mastery of volition terms (e.g., like to do and want) preceded their mastery of cognition terms. These findings confirm the cross-linguistic consistency of children's emerging expression of abstract psychological concepts

Biological Motion Primes the Animate/Inanimate Distinction in Infancy

Given that biological motion is both detected and preferred early in life, we tested the hypothesis that biological motion might be instrumental to infants’ differentiation of animate and inanimate categories. Infants were primed with either point-light displays of realistic biological motion, random motion, or schematic biological motion of an unfamiliar shape. After being habituated to these displays, 12-month-old infants categorized animals and vehicles as well as furniture and vehicles with the sequential touching task. The findings indicated that infants primed with point-light displays of realistic biological motion showed better categorization of animates than those exposed to random or schematic biological motion. These results suggest that human biological motion might be one of the motion cues that provide the building blocks for infants’ concept of animacy

Bilingual and monolingual children prefer native-accented speakers

Adults and young children prefer to affiliate with some individuals rather than others. Studies have shown that monolingual children show in-group biases for individuals who speak their native language without a foreign accent (Kinzler et al., 2007). Some studies have suggested that bilingual children are less influenced than monolinguals by language variety when attributing personality traits to different speakers (Anisfeld and Lambert, 1964), which could indicate that bilinguals have fewer in-group biases and perhaps greater social flexibility. However, no previous studies have compared monolingual and bilingual children's reactions to speakers with unfamiliar foreign accents. In the present study, we investigated the social preferences of 5-year-old English and French monolinguals and English-French bilinguals. Contrary to our predictions, both monolingual and bilingual preschoolers preferred to be friends with native-accented speakers over speakers who spoke their dominant language with an unfamiliar foreign accent. This result suggests that both monolingual and bilingual children have strong preferences for in-group members who use a familiar language variety, and that bilingualism does not lead to generalized social flexibility