Habit and spontaneity in Samuel Beckett's English fictions.

PhDIn this study I will be analysing the way in which the contraries that Beckett calls habit and spontaneity are used in the fictions he wrote in English. In his discursive writings Beckett comments on human experience generally and on the experience of artists particularly in terms of these contraries. I will show that they can be seen as applicable to the people who populate Beckett's early fictions, and thus as illuminating the meaning of those fictions

Efficacy of different cooling methods for capture-induced hyperthermia in antelope

The capture of wild animals is a stressful event which may cause a capture-induced hyperthermia, resulting in morbidity or mortality. We investigated whether various cooling techniques were effective at lowering the body temperature of hyperthermic animals. To achieve this, we implanted miniature temperature-sensitive data loggers into the abdomens of 12 blesbok (Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi ). Five animals were cooled by dousing with water of different temperatures (4°C, 17°C, 28°C) and fanning after dousing with 28°C water. Seven animals were cooled by ice-packs, a fine mist spray of 28°C water, intravenous (IV) infusion of one litre of 4°C saline solution or 28°C water-dousing. The body temperature after capture was significantly elevated to as high as 41°C to 42°C. Water-dousing interventions significantly decreased minimum body temperature but there was no difference in the minimumbody temperature reached or the magnitude of cooling between the different water temperatures or by the addition of fanning. The ice-packs also lowered body temperature, whereas mist spraying did not.The use of ice packs and dousing with water between 4°C and 28°C were the most effective techniques to reduce capture-induced hyperthermia in blesbok.Water-dousing,when done appropriately, is the most practical and effective method to cool an animal with capture-induced hyperthermia.This study was funded by the National Research Foundation, South Africa.http://www.sawma.co.za/am201

Body temperature, activity patterns and hunting in free-living cheetah : biologging reveals new insights

As one of the few felids that is predominantly diurnal, cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) can be exposed to high heat loads in their natural habitat. Little is known about long‐term patterns of body temperature and activity (including hunting) in cheetahs because long‐term concurrent measurements of body temperature and activity have never been reported for cheetahs, or, indeed, for any free‐living felid. We report here body temperature and locomotor activity measured with implanted data loggers over 7 months in 5 free‐living cheetahs in Namibia. Air temperature ranged from a maximum of 39 °C in summer to −2 °C in winter. Cheetahs had higher (∼0.4 °C) maximum 24‐h body temperatures, later acrophase (∼1 h), with larger fluctuations in the range of the 24‐h body temperature rhythm (approximately 0.4 °C) during a hot‐dry period than during a cool‐dry period, but maintained homeothermy irrespective of the climatic conditions. As ambient temperatures increased, the cheetahs shifted from a diurnal to a crepuscular activity pattern, with reduced activity between 900 and 1500 hours and increased nocturnal activity. The timing of hunts followed the general pattern of activity; the cheetahs hunted when they were on the move. Cheetahs hunted if an opportunity presented itself; on occasion they hunted in the midday heat or in total darkness (new moon). Biologging revealed insights into cheetah biology that are not accessible by traditional observer‐based techniques.Supplementary Material: Table S1 Prey identified after 38 successful hunts. Figure S1 An original record of 10‐min recordings of body temperature from a single free‐living female cheetah (female 1, panel B) and the prevailing black globe temperature recorded at a nearby weather station (panel A) over the 7‐month study period (October to May).The National Research Foundation of South Africa and a Carnegie Large Research Grant.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17494877hj2020Paraclinical Science

The Early Royal Society and Visual Culture

Recent studies have fruitfully examined the intersection between early modern science and visual culture by elucidating the functions of images in shaping and disseminating scientific knowledge. Given its rich archival sources, it is possible to extend this line of research in the case of the Royal Society to an examination of attitudes towards images as artefacts –manufactured objects worth commissioning, collecting and studying. Drawing on existing scholarship and material from the Royal Society Archives, I discuss Fellows’ interests in prints, drawings, varnishes, colorants, images made out of unusual materials, and methods of identifying the painter from a painting. Knowledge of production processes of images was important to members of the Royal Society, not only as connoisseurs and collectors, but also as those interested in a Baconian mastery of material processes, including a “history of trades”. Their antiquarian interests led to discussion of painters’ styles, and they gradually developed a visual memorial to an institution through portraits and other visual records.AH/M001938/1 (AHRC

Quebec Fiction in English During the 1980s: A Case Study in Marginality

The virtual invisibility of contemporary English-language fiction in Quebec is in marked contrast to its prevalence in the 1940s and 1950s, when MacLennan, Richler, and Moore were at the forefront of the Canadian literary scene. The current indifference has decidedly extra-literary implications. Quebec fiction is usually perceived to be synonymous with French, although the large body of work written in English -- by authors like Trevor Ferguson, Ann Diamond, David Homel and others -- belies this assumption. This work as a whole is the only substantial body of Canadian fiction that shows an interest in relations between francophones and non-francophones. Appropriately, marginality is very often the principal subject for much of this fiction

English fiction in Quebec since 1945

(rel. à l'anglaise