Male Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder? Guys, Guises and Disguise in Patrick White’s The Twyborn Affair

Peer reviewed article. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, which first appeared in the 3rd century BC in Greek, quickly gained proverbial currency in the English language thanks to its wisdom. Admittedly, whenever beauty has been acknowledged, one should take it primarily as a comment on the beholder rather than on the model. In heterosexual relationships, male beauty would thus be informative of the female gaze and conception of aesthetics. But what of homosexual relationships? Logically, male beauty would inform as much on the aesthetics of the beholder as on the canons of male beauty through the representation of the perfect man. Now what if the male model appeals to both male and female beholders? Can gay men and straight women share the same aesthetics of the male body? Do they seek and value the same things in a partner? And then what if the male model switches to female beauty all the while sustaining an unflinching power of seduction? Would that prove that beauty is genderless or would that mean that desirability is unrelated to beauty? On a creative level, when White depicts an ambiguous protean protagonist, beauty essentially relies on his characterization skills. But is male beauty objectively inherent to the model or is it solely to be found in the novelist’s subjective representation of his central character

An Interview with Jean-François Vernay

The second edition of Jean-François Vernay’s book A Brief Take on the Australian Novel (Adelaide: Wakefield Press) was released in 2016. This incisive history of Australian fiction is remarkable for a relatively young scholar, both for its ambitious scope and its innovative approach, employing structural techniques derived from the world and language of cinema. It is designed to appeal to the general reader seeking to test their views against Vernay’s, to those new to the area of Australian fiction who might use it as a guide to their reading, and to those engaged in academic study. As has often been noted, Jean-François Vernay’s French-Australian parentage and background give him an unusual and distinctive perspective on Australian writing. Jean-François is also the author of Water from the Moon: Illusion and Reality in the Works of Christopher Koch (New York: Cambria Press, 2007), as well as numerous other critical studies. His book The Seduction of Fiction: A Plea for Putting Emotions Back into Literary Interpretation will be released in August 2016 as part of Palgrave Macmillan’s series Studies in Affect Theory and Literary Criticism. He is also a creative writer in his own right, notably of Un doux petit rêveur (2012)

Review of The Hatred of Literature by William Marx, translated by Nicholas Elliott.

Review of The Hatred of Literature by William Marx, translated from the French by Nicholas Elliott

Review of Island Home: A Landscape Memoir by Tim Winton

Review of Island Home: A Landscape Memoir by Tim Winto

Impact of aircraft fuel chemical composition on the physicochemical properties of primary and secondary particulate matter emissions

International audienc

The UNREAL (Unveiling nucleation mechanism in aircraft engine exhaust and its link with fuel composition) project: Results from simulation chamber and reactor experiments

International audienceAviation emissions are not limited to greenhouse gases like CO2 but include other gases as well, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) or sulfur oxides (SOx) and volatile and non-volatile particulate matter (vPM and nvPM respectively). Sulfuric acid formed in the engine exhaust seems to be linked to the formation of vPM. However, the amount of sulfur present in the fuel converted to sulfuric acid in the exhaust is too small to explain the amount of vPM observed and organic species seem to play a key role in their formation. The UNREAL project aims at studying at the molecular level the different mechanisms of new particle formation from the exhausts of aircraft engines fed by different fuels. We used a Combustion Aerosol STandard (CAST) generator especially designed to work with liquid fuel to generate the emissions from different fuels (from the standard Jet A-1 to 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Total, or only gas-phase, emissions were injected in both, an atmospheric simulation chamber (CESAM) and a Potential Aerosol Mass Oxidation Flow Reactor (PAM-OFR) for aging. Both systems used in parallel provide a point of comparison between in near-real time and hours-long time chamber aging approaches. The chemical and physical evolution of primary and secondary CAST emissions, were monitored by different instruments to measure particle number, mass concentrations as well their size distribution, and the chemical composition of both, the particulate and gas phases. In addition to online techniques, samples were collected to study off line, the gas and aerosol chemical composition at molecular level by mass spectrometry

Impact of fuel composition on primary and secondary aeronautic emissions: gaseous and particulate chemical characterization at molecular level

International audienceOne of the actual concerns of aviation industry is to reduce its impact on climate and air quality using for example Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF, [1]). As part of the UNREAL Project [2], the objective of this work was to study and compare chemically, at a molecular level, gaseous and particulate phases of primary and secondary emissions from various aircraft fuels, from the standard Jet A-1 to 100 % SAF (Alcohol to Jet). Related emissions from a liquid CAST burner [3] were injected into an atmospheric chamber (CESAM), and in parallel, into a Potential Aerosol Mass Oxidation Flow Reactor (PAM-OFR) to age the emissions (OH reactivity in both cases). To collect these fresh and aged particles, a system with two quartz fiber filters was used: the Front Filter (FF) traps the particulate phase while the Back Filter (BF) is coated with activated carbon to retain the gas phase [4]. Samples were analyzed with a Two-Step Laser Mass Spectrometry (L2MS) technique to study the chemical composition of emissions, in particular Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds (PAC) and sulfur such as SO2, SO3 or H2SO4. The chemical composition of the filter-deposited samples is compared to on-line measurements performed by an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer and an Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor for particles, and a Proton Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTRMS) for gaseous species. A comparison of the primary and aged emission molecular chemical fingerprints obtained, as well as between both atmospheric reactors (CESAM vs PAM-OFR), will be proposed. This work benefited from the support of the project UNREAL ANR-18-CE22-0019 of the French National Research Agency (ANR)

Liquid Combustion Aerosol Standard Generator (CAST): a low-cost alternative combustion emission source for aeronautical fuel evaluation

International audienceEmissions from aircraft engines impact climate and air quality in and around airports (Airbus GMF 2018, Vorster et al. 2013). There are different options available to reduce aircraft emissions, based notably on the development of sustainable fuels. The evaluation of the physicochemical characteristics of the particulate emissions from such fuels in real conditions is difficult to achieve and very expensive. The mini-CAST burner, suitable for the combustion of liquid fuel (Jing 2003), is an interesting alternative to obtain soot emissions comparable to those from aircraft engine. The design of the liquid CAST is based on the conventional propane model but here, the propane flame is used to vaporize the fuel in the combustion chamber to further generate a flame. A quenching flow of nitrogen stops the combustion reactions and a flow of dilution air accelerates emissions in the measurement line and avoids soot agglomeration. This work aimed to characterize CAST emissions for aircraft fuels of different chemical compositions and to study their stability and reproducibility

Liquid Combustion Aerosol Standard Generator (CAST): a low-cost alternative combustion emission source for aeronautical fuel evaluation

International audienceEmissions from aircraft engines impact climate and air quality in and around airports (Airbus GMF 2018, Vorster et al. 2013). There are different options available to reduce aircraft emissions, based notably on the development of sustainable fuels. The evaluation of the physicochemical characteristics of the particulate emissions from such fuels in real conditions is difficult to achieve and very expensive. The mini-CAST burner, suitable for the combustion of liquid fuel (Jing 2003), is an interesting alternative to obtain soot emissions comparable to those from aircraft engine. The design of the liquid CAST is based on the conventional propane model but here, the propane flame is used to vaporize the fuel in the combustion chamber to further generate a flame. A quenching flow of nitrogen stops the combustion reactions and a flow of dilution air accelerates emissions in the measurement line and avoids soot agglomeration. This work aimed to characterize CAST emissions for aircraft fuels of different chemical compositions and to study their stability and reproducibility