The History of the Book from Chaucer to Shakespeare

Book history syllabu

Participatory reading in late-medieval England

This book explores how modern media practices can illuminate participatory reading in England from the late-fourteenth to the early-sixteenth centuries. Nonlinear apprehension, immersion and embodiment are practices intimately familiar to readers of Wikipedia, players of video games and users of multi-touch mobile devices. But far from being unique to digital media, they have clear analogues in the pre-modern era. Participatory reading in late-medieval England traces how the affinities between old and new media can reveal fresh insights not only about the digital, but also about the long history of media forms and practices. It thus casts new light on the literary practices of a period pre- and post-print to demonstrate how participatory reading vitally contributed to and shaped these negotiations of fragile authority

Combining SPR with atomic-force microscopy enables single-molecule insights into activation and suppression of the complement cascade

This work was supported by Leverhulme Trust Grant RPG-2015-109.Activation and suppression of the complement system compete on every serum-exposed surface, host or foreign. Potentially harmful outcomes of this competition depend on surface molecules through mechanisms that remain incompletely understood. Combining surface plasmon resonance (SPR) with atomic force microscopy (AFM), here we studied two complement system proteins at the single-molecule level: C3b, the proteolytically activated form of C3, and factor H (FH), the surface-sensing C3b-binding complement regulator. We used SPR to monitor complement initiation occurring through a positive-feedback loop wherein surface-deposited C3b participates in convertases that cleave C3, thereby depositing more C3b. Over multiple cycles of flowing factor B, factor D, and C3 over the SPR chip, we amplified C3b from ∼20 to ∼220 molecules·μm−2. AFM revealed C3b clusters of up to 20 molecules and solitary C3b molecules deposited up to 200 nm away from the clusters. A force of 0.17 ± 0.02 nanonewtons was needed to pull a single FH molecule, anchored to the AFM probe, from its complex with surface-attached C3b. The extent to which FH molecules stretched before detachment varied widely among complexes. Performing force-distance measurements with FH(D1119G), a variant lacking one of the C3b-binding sites and causing atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome, we found that it detached more uniformly and easily. In further SPR experiments, KD values between FH and C3b on a custom-made chip surface were 5-fold tighter than on commercial chips and similar to those on erythrocytes. These results suggest that the chemistry at the surface on which FH acts drives conformational adjustments that are functionally critical.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Increasing vegetable intakes: rationale and systematic review of published interventions

Purpose While the health benefits of a high fruit and vegetable consumption are well known and considerable work has attempted to improve intakes, increasing evidence also recognises a distinction between fruit and vegetables, both in their impacts on health and in consumption patterns. Increasing work suggests health benefits from a high consumption specifically of vegetables, yet intakes remain low, and barriers to increasing intakes are prevalent making intervention difficult. A systematic review was undertaken to identify from the published literature all studies reporting an intervention to increase intakes of vegetables as a distinct food group. Methods Databases—PubMed, PsychInfo and Medline—were searched over all years of records until April 2015 using pre-specified terms. Results Our searches identified 77 studies, detailing 140 interventions, of which 133 (81 %) interventions were conducted in children. Interventions aimed to use or change hedonic factors, such as taste, liking and familiarity (n = 72), use or change environmental factors (n = 39), use or change cognitive factors (n = 19), or a combination of strategies (n = 10). Increased vegetable acceptance, selection and/or consumption were reported to some degree in 116 (83 %) interventions, but the majority of effects seem small and inconsistent. Conclusions Greater percent success is currently found from environmental, educational and multi-component interventions, but publication bias is likely, and long-term effects and cost-effectiveness are rarely considered. A focus on long-term benefits and sustained behaviour change is required. Certain population groups are also noticeably absent from the current list of tried interventions

Participatory reading in late-medieval England

This book explores how modern media practices can illuminate participatory reading in England from the late-fourteenth to the early-sixteenth centuries. Nonlinear apprehension, immersion and embodiment are practices intimately familiar to readers of Wikipedia, players of video games and users of multi-touch mobile devices. But far from being unique to digital media, they have clear analogues in the pre-modern era. Participatory reading in late-medieval England traces how the affinities between old and new media can reveal fresh insights not only about the digital, but also about the long history of media forms and practices. It thus casts new light on the literary practices of a period pre- and post-print to demonstrate how participatory reading vitally contributed to and shaped these negotiations of fragile authority

Creating the medieval reader: Old media, new media, and textual interactivity, 1380--1500

Creating the Medieval Reader reconstructs overlooked modes of reading in medieval England that both anticipated and shaped reader participation. Drawing on theories of audience participation that have emerged from the field of new media studies, this study demonstrates that our notions of medieval reading must take into account the fluid, collaborative modes that writers encouraged in their vernacular audiences, before as well as after the introduction of print. The interactive reading practices studied include emendation, immersion, and nonlinear and multimedia apprehension. John Lydgate (whose works thread through all four chapters, including Siege of Thebes and Troy Book) provides a rich source of information about interactive reading practices, and his work is juxtaposed with texts ranging from the devotional Book of Margery Kempe to the occasional verse of Thomas More. Studying these interactive, participatory modes of reading sheds new light on the relationships among authors and audiences, writers’ authority and readers’ agency, during a crucial period in the development of English literary culture. Creating the Medieval Reader shows how writers in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, even as they create themselves as authors, work to fashion their readers as co-creators.