Hooked on Classics: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit 25 years on

This chapter sets out to to reassess the critical reception of Winterson’s Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit 25 years after its initial publication. It argues that the text operates on many different levels, circulating as a much loved comic novel of growing up, as teaching material, as an aspect of popular/literary culture, and as part of Winterson’s own mythobiography. Its success may be attributed to the ways in which the narrative ‘hooks’ itself onto classic texts, which circulate in the culture’s collective unconscious. This chapter will combine these emphases and consider the novel as a literary classic that both subverts the canon and inscribes the tradition in the process of reworking autobiography as art. It will draw on recent interviews with Winterson to suggest that the novel represents a ‘cover story’ that conceals the sense of loss intrinsic to Winterson’s origin story

Three-Dimensional X-ray Observation of Atmospheric Biological Samples by Linear-Array Scanning-Electron Generation X-ray Microscope System

Recently, we developed a soft X-ray microscope called the scanning-electron generation X-ray microscope (SGXM), which consists of a simple X-ray detection system that detects X-rays emitted from the interaction between a scanning electron beam (EB) and the thin film of the sample mount. We present herein a three-dimensional (3D) X-ray detection system that is based on the SGXM technology and designed for studying atmospheric biological samples. This 3D X-ray detection system contains a linear X-ray photodiode (PD) array. The specimens are placed under a CuZn-coated Si3N4 thin film, which is attached to an atmospheric sample holder. Multiple tilt X-ray images of the samples are detected simultaneously by the linear array of X-ray PDs, and the 3D structure is calculated by a new 3D reconstruction method that uses a simulated-annealing algorithm. The resulting 3D models clearly reveal the inner structure of the bacterium. In addition, the proposed method can easily be used for diverse samples in a broad range of scientific fields

The affordance of compassion for animals: a filmic exploration of industrial linear rhythms

Compassion is an emotion that could be useful for improving the lives of animals within the intensive and factory farming system (IFFS). Rhythms that exist within this system play a role in making compassion difficult to realize, which formulates the research question: How do the rhythms of the IFFS shape the affordance of compassion for animals? Drawing on a cultural mode of analysis informed by Henri Lefebvre’s work on rhythms, this paper explored the rhythms of three films that focus on the treatment of animals in this system: Meat; Our Daily Bread and Never Let Me Go. Industrial linear rhythms seem to compromise the compassion offered to animals in the IFFS by manipulating the cyclical rhythms of animals and animalized bodies from birth, through life and at death. Compassion for animals and animalized bodies in the IFFS, this paper concludes, is often provided in a piecemeal and localized manner

Ptychography

Ptychography is a computational imaging technique. A detector records an extensive data set consisting of many inference patterns obtained as an object is displaced to various positions relative to an illumination field. A computer algorithm of some type is then used to invert these data into an image. It has three key advantages: it does not depend upon a good-quality lens, or indeed on using any lens at all; it can obtain the image wave in phase as well as in intensity; and it can self-calibrate in the sense that errors that arise in the experimental set up can be accounted for and their effects removed. Its transfer function is in theory perfect, with resolution being wavelength limited. Although the main concepts of ptychography were developed many years ago, it has only recently (over the last 10 years) become widely adopted. This chapter surveys visible light, x-ray, electron, and EUV ptychography as applied to microscopic imaging. It describes the principal experimental arrangements used at these various wavelengths. It reviews the most common inversion algorithms that are nowadays employed, giving examples of meta code to implement these. It describes, for those new to the field, how to avoid the most common pitfalls in obtaining good quality reconstructions. It also discusses more advanced techniques such as modal decomposition and strategies to cope with three-dimensional () multiple scattering

Shaping the Future of Sociology: The Challenge of Interdisciplinarity beyond the Social Sciences

Despite the increasing push towards interdisciplinarity across the physical and social sciences, little is known about the realities of working across such diverse disciplinary boundaries. This article provides empirical insight into the challenges of collaboration from the perspective of a sociologist working on an interdisciplinary project focused on developing a medical device. Findings suggest the effective contribution of sociological research is affected by the framing of interdisciplinary projects. From the beginning, the project pursued a narrow framing focused on scientific development, pushing the sociological research outside the relevance of the project. Reframing is negotiated in shared spaces between disciplines, and fieldwork became important in reframing the project to include the sociological research. However, without commitment to addressing a societal problem, it was impossible for sociology to contribute effectively. Sociologists embarking on similar endeavours should ensure there is shared commitment towards a social issue to prevent the marginalization of sociological research