Lady Libertines and Female Freethinkers in Early Modern English Drama and Society

This dissertation reevaluates the role of early modern female libertines as sexual celebrities and analyzes how they performed their libertine sexuality in various types of literary and cultural texts. Female libertine performance should be conceived of differently than that of male libertines because women thrived as sexual celebrities both in variety of literary genres (such as plays, anonymous lampoons, memoirs, and secret histories) and in diverse media, including theatrical performances, painted/printed portraits, and extra-illustrated books. The focus of the dissertation is on female libertines whose public appearances took place between 1660 and 1700 but who have enjoyed culturally visible images for centuries: Nell Gwyn (1651?-1687), Barbara Palmer, countess of Castlemaine and later the duchess of Cleveland (bap. 1640, d. 1709), and Louise de Kéroualle, later duchess of Portsmouth (1649-1734). Their power and influence of transgressive sexuality, both political and cultural, becomes clearer when we stop dismissing them simply as Charles II’s mistresses, or labelling them as “whores.” In order to appreciate the full complexity of the past where early modern female libertines powerfully and radically challenge the early modern status quo, this dissertation locates how historical and fictional women performed at the intersection of visual culture, literature, theater, politics, and other cultural forms. Literary and cultural representations of female libertine transgression were collaborations between playwrights, authors, actresses, and inspiring lady libertines outside the theater. Playwrights wrote plays for celebrity actresses based on their public behavior. Actresses played libertine characters that often mirrored, played with, and parodied their public images. Audiences watched these performances with notions of transgressive female behavior in mind from the scandals surrounding the performers. Lady libertines of early modern England challenged the conventional role of women in the patrilineage and the notion of family based on heterosexual and monogamous relationship. These women, both historical and fictional, sometimes carefully engineered transgression to shock and aggressively assert their rejection of the social norms they were meant to follow. In addition, their public image and celebrity take on a life on their own when initially personally maneuvered libertine transgression become social and cultural currency that can be exchanged and commercialized in visual, oral, and print media

Lady Libertines and Female Freethinkers in Early Modern English Drama and Society

This dissertation reevaluates the role of early modern female libertines as sexual celebrities and analyzes how they performed their libertine sexuality in various types of literary and cultural texts. Female libertine performance should be conceived of differently than that of male libertines because women thrived as sexual celebrities both in variety of literary genres (such as plays, anonymous lampoons, memoirs, and secret histories) and in diverse media, including theatrical performances, painted/printed portraits, and extra-illustrated books. The focus of the dissertation is on female libertines whose public appearances took place between 1660 and 1700 but who have enjoyed culturally visible images for centuries: Nell Gwyn (1651?-1687), Barbara Palmer, countess of Castlemaine and later the duchess of Cleveland (bap. 1640, d. 1709), and Louise de Kéroualle, later duchess of Portsmouth (1649-1734). Their power and influence of transgressive sexuality, both political and cultural, becomes clearer when we stop dismissing them simply as Charles II’s mistresses, or labelling them as “whores.” In order to appreciate the full complexity of the past where early modern female libertines powerfully and radically challenge the early modern status quo, this dissertation locates how historical and fictional women performed at the intersection of visual culture, literature, theater, politics, and other cultural forms. Literary and cultural representations of female libertine transgression were collaborations between playwrights, authors, actresses, and inspiring lady libertines outside the theater. Playwrights wrote plays for celebrity actresses based on their public behavior. Actresses played libertine characters that often mirrored, played with, and parodied their public images. Audiences watched these performances with notions of transgressive female behavior in mind from the scandals surrounding the performers. Lady libertines of early modern England challenged the conventional role of women in the patrilineage and the notion of family based on heterosexual and monogamous relationship. These women, both historical and fictional, sometimes carefully engineered transgression to shock and aggressively assert their rejection of the social norms they were meant to follow. In addition, their public image and celebrity take on a life on their own when initially personally maneuvered libertine transgression become social and cultural currency that can be exchanged and commercialized in visual, oral, and print media

Removal of Algae, and Taste and Odor Compounds by a Combination of Plant-Mineral Composite (PMC) Coagulant with UV-AOPs: Laboratory and Pilot Scale Studies

The seasonal occurrence of algae blooms in surface waters remains a common problem, such as taste and odor (T&Os), the risk of disinfection by-products (DBPs), and disturbance to water treatment systems. The coagulation efficiency of plant-mineral composite (PMC) coagulant followed by UV-based advanced oxidation processes (UV-AOPs; UV/H2O2 and UV/Cl2) was evaluated for removal of algae, turbidity, dissolved organic matters, and taste and odor compounds in lab-scale and pilot-scale tests. In the lab-scale test, coagulation process with 20 mg/L of PMC shows high removal efficiency of turbidity (94%) and algae (99%) and moderate removal efficiency of UV254 (51%) and geosmin (46%). The pilot test results also show good removal efficiency of turbidity (64%), chlorophyll-a (96%). After PMC coagulation process, the major water factors, which affected the performance of UV-AOPs (i.e., UV transmittance (85–94%), and scavenging factor (64,998–28,516 s−1)), were notably improved, and further degradation of geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (2-MIB) was achieved in both lab-and pilot-scale tests of the UV-AOPs. The UV/H2O2 process shows higher removal efficiency of geosmin and 2-MIB than the UV/Cl2 process because of the pH effect. The results confirmed that the PMC-based coagulation followed by UV/H2O2 process could be an effective process for the removal of algae, geosmin, and 2-MIB

Evaluation of the formation of oxidants and by-products using Pt/Ti, RuO₂/Ti, and IrO₂/Ti electrodes in the electrochemical process

<div><p>The aim of this study was to evaluate the formation of oxidants and by-products by using different electrode materials, such as Pt/Ti, RuO₂/Ti, and IrO₂/Ti, in the electrochemical process. The harmful by-products and were formed during the electrolysis of a Cl⁻ electrolyte solution, as well as active chlorine, which is the most common water disinfectant. With regard to drinking water treatment, the most efficient electrode was defined as that leading to a higher formation of active chlorine and a lower formation of hazardous by-products. Overall, it was found that the Pt/Ti electrode should not be used for drinking water treatment applications, while the IrO₂/Ti and RuO₂/Ti electrodes are ideal for use.</p></div

Investigation of the efficacy of the UV/Chlorine process for the removal of trimethoprim: Effects of operational parameters and artificial neural networks modelling

The UV/Cl2 process (also known as chlorine photolysis, which is the combination of chlorine and simultaneous irradiation of UV light) is conventionally applied at acidic mediums for drinking water treatment and further treatment of wastewater effluents for secondary reuse. This is because the quantum yield of HO• from HOCl (ϕHO•, 254 = 1.4) is greater than the one from OCl- (ϕHO•, 254 = 0.278) by approximately 5 times. Moreover, chlorine photolysis in acidic mediums also tends to have lower radical quenching rates than that of their alkaline counterparts by up to 1000 times. The aim of this research is to investigate the applicability of the UV/Cl2 process by assessing its efficacy on the removal of trimethoprim (TMP) at not only acidic to neutral conditions (pH 6-7), but also alkaline mediums (pH 8-9). At alkaline pH, free chlorine exists as OCl- and since OCl- has a higher molar absorption coefficient as compared to HOCl at higher wavelengths, there would be higher reactive chlorine species (RCS) formation and contribution. TMP removal followed pseudo-first order kinetics and depicted that a maximum fluence based constant (kf′ = 0.275 cm2/mJ) was obtained using 42.25 μM (3 mg/L) of chlorine at pH 9, with an irradiation of 275 nm. At alkaline conditions, chlorine photolysis performance followed the trend of UV (275)/Cl2 &gt; UV (265)/Cl2 &gt; UV (310)/Cl2 &gt; UV (254)/Cl2. RCS like Cl•, Cl2−• and ClO• contributed to the degradation of TMP. When the pH was increased from 6 to 8, contribution from hydroxyl radicals (HO• ) was decreased whilst that of RCS was increased. Application of UV (310)/Cl2 had the highest HO• generation, contributing to TMP removals up to 13% to 48% as compared to 5% to 27% in UV (254, 265, 275)/Cl2 systems at pH 6-9. Artificial neural networks modelling was found to be able to verify and predict the contribution of HO• and RCS conventionally calculated via the general kinetic equations in the UV/Cl2 system at 254, 265, 275 and 310 nm.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Sanitary Engineerin