• English & American cultural studies
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.33-64
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• 2018

Through the experimental narrative construction by authorial divinity, Muriel Spark's novels and films based on her fiction show the difficulty of living like a human being under various inhumane and manipulative circumstances of the modern capitalistic society. By adopting flash-forward, self-reflection, and deceptive omnipotent viewpoints, her work has surprisingly predicted the post-modern trend in which humans are increasingly attracted and interpellated to the digitalized media. Muriel Spark called the recent anesthetic situation by stimulation "a driver's seat" because it is a symbol of how humans should act to maintain the critical subject. Emphasizing the value of self-reflection, religion and morality in the mechanized society, Muriel Spark stressed literature should play the role of helmsman who sails safely in the rough sea. In Muriel Spark's works, God is often synonymous with writers. As a Jewish immigrant she experienced alienation in Scotland, marital violence, prejudices of the London-based publishing world, Nazism, and Watergate. For her, the harsh reality of the modern society needs to be guided and complemented by something beyond human control. But rather than relying entirely on traditional Catholic doctrines such as Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark has taken a personal, religious view of literature and insists that the genuine writer must play God's play. Seeking for the speculative vision for the future of human life in God's plan, she tries to understand the complex twisted motives of human beings which are often far from the ideal form. Simply put, her search of self-reflection, religion and ethics is modeled on the God's plan for the ideal human being who is supposed as the writer with the transfigurative imagination of the trinity.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.393-425
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• 2019

This paper focuses on Alain Resnais's representative works (1955), (1959), and (1963), and analyzes how he implements a representation of memory though cinematic apparatus. These three films deal with horrific memories that seem impossible to reproduce aesthetically such as the Holocaust, the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb, World War II, and the war in Algeria. The reappearance of events that stripped humans of even their minimum dignity can naturally be associated with ethical issues. These events can never be reproduced because they cannot be explained in the human language. It is also impossible to reproduce in a way that doesn't invade other peoples' sufferings, nor displays the pain of others as spectacles. Alain Resnais was a director who realized that if factual representation was not possible from the beginning, truthfulness would have to be approached through cinematic form. Therefore, he tries to overcome these problems through cinematic forms. First, he shifts to action films to avoid the obscenity of documentary. shows the records of camps captured by German forces in the past, while shows the pain of others in a fictional form of representation. Next, he describes how the trauma affects the identity of the main character through a flashback in , but also shows a main character who is experiencing trauma without a flashback in Flashbacks have the effect of showing the effects of trauma on the main character, but at the same time they involve the obscenity of enjoying the suffering of others. Nonetheless, the absence of flashbacks highlights the impossibility of representation. This is because it is not silent in the impossibility of representation but is constantly approaching. The attitude that repeatedly circles around impossibility is an ethical form that maximizes the impossibility of representation. In conclusion, this is the ethics of representation that Alain Resnais showed in his films.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.473-477
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• 2006

The above described semi-transparent monochromators have been operational since 1997. Four units are permanently operating at the ESRF beam line ID14. Two units are in continuous operation at ID 10 and one unit is installed at the APS beamline 8-ID in USA. The water cooling of the crystals is currently being revised and above we showed that improvements most likely are possible by using micro fluidics techniques. Further tests will be performed in collaboration with the CEA-France and tested at ESRF. Parallel developments including nanofluids as coolants are under evaluation. Combination of nanofluidics and microfluidics cooling devices are under study. The authors are grateful to C. Gillot and J-A. Gruss for useful discussions and advices, and to S.Mcheik for his work on the thermal model.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.115-127
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• 2002

This study aims to investigate John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman. This important postmodern novel is arguably the most important fiction published in England during the 1960's. John Fowles, along with Muriel Spark, Irish Mudoch and Doris Lessing is one the most influential postmodern writers. This is a study on the narrative technique, multiful endings, parody and author intrusion. The French Lieutenant's Woman is metafiction - a novel about writing a novel. The author says "This story I am telling is all imagination" in chapter 13. That is to say that John Fowles subverts traditional and even modernist poetics. His own intentional attempt to depart from traditional narrative structure is itself one of the novel's central issues. Through The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles shows postmodernist writers' narrative strategy.

• Food Science and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.324-329
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• 2008

The effect of ultra-high pressure homogenization on the emulsifying properties of whey protein was investigated in a model emulsion made with whey protein isolate and soya oil under various pH. The emulsifying properties, the average diameter of the oil droplets ($d_{vs}$), and the protein load, were measured for each emulsion produced at different homogenization pressures (50 to 200 MPa) and pH values (4.6 to 8.0). According to the results of variance analysis and response surface, the pH had more influence on oil droplet size and protein load than homogenization pressure. The model equations, which were obtained by response surface analysis, show that pH and homogenization pressure had the major effect on oil droplet size and protein load. Higher homogenization pressure decreased the average droplet size and the protein load. Homogenization at high pressure, as opposed to low pressure, causes no overprocessing, but the effect was pH-dependent. The average diameter of the oil droplets increased slightly by decreasing the pH from 8.0 to 6.5 and then increased dramatically toward the isoelectric point of whey protein (i.e., at pH 4.6). Moreover associated droplets were found at acidic pH and their size was increased at high temperature.

• Journal of Cardiovascular Imaging
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.202-211
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• 2022

BACKGROUND: This study aims to investigate normal changes throughout aging of the heart in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging in healthy volunteers. While type 2 diabetes mellitus is a frequent finding in the elderly population, also the influence of this circumstance in otherwise healthy persons is part of our study. METHODS: In this prospective single-center trial, 75 healthy subjects in distinct age groups and 10 otherwise healthy diabetics were enrolled. All subjects underwent functional, flow sensitive, native T2- and T1-mapping in a 1.5T CMR scanner. RESULTS: No differences in right and left ventricular ejection fractions were observed between aging healthy groups. Bi-ventricular volumes lowered significantly (p<0.001) between the age groups. There was also a significant decrease in myocardial T1 values, aortic distensibility, and left ventricular peak diastolic strain rates. There were no differences in T2 mapping and the other deformation parameters. Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus had lower end-diastolic volume indexes; all the other measurements were comparable. CONCLUSIONS: Aging processes in the healthy heart involve a decrease in ventricular volumes, with ejection fractions remaining normal. Stiffening of the myocardium and aorta and a decrease in T1 values are potential indications of age-related remodeling. Type 2 diabetes mellitus seems to have no major influence on aging processes of the heart.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.1306-1318
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• 2009

The filamentous ascomycete Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is well known for its ability to produce a large variety of hydrolytic enzymes. Two $\alpha$-amylases ScAmy54 and ScAmy43 predicted to play an important role in starch degradation were showed to produce specific oligosaccharides essentially maltotriose that have a considerable commercial interest. Primary structure of the two enzymes was established by N-terminal sequencing, MALDI-TOF masse spectrometry and cDNA cloning. The two proteins have the same N-terminal catalytic domain and ScAmy43 derived from ScAmy54 by truncation of 96 amino acids at the carboxyl-terminal region. Data of genomic analysis suggested that the two enzymes originated from the same $\alpha$-amylase gene and that truncation of ScAmy54 to ScAmy43 occurred probably during S. sclerotiorum cultivation. The structural gene of Scamy54 consisted of 9 exons and 8 introns, containing a single 1,500-bp open reading frame encoding 499 amino acids including a signal peptide of 21 residues. ScAmy54 exhibited high amino acid homology with other liquefying fungal $\alpha$-amylases essentially in the four conserved regions and in the putative catalytic triad. A 3D structure model of ScAmy54 and ScAmy43 was built using the 3-D structure of 2guy from A. niger as template. ScAmy54 is composed by three domains A, B, and C, including the well-known $(\beta/\alpha)_8$ barrel motif in domain A, have a typical structure of $\alpha$-amylase family, whereas ScAmy43 contained only tow domains A and B is the first fungal $\alpha$-amylase described until now with the smallest catalytic domain.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2022

Due to the physical-chemical characteristics of some bottom ash (BA), there are technical, economic and environmental limitations to find a destination that will add value to it. In Brazil, this residue is eventually used for filling coal extraction pits or remains in sedimentation ponds, creating a susceptible panorama to environmental issues. The geopolymers binders are one of the alternatives to the proper use high amounts of these materials. In this work, geopolymeric binder pastes were produced with BA mixed to activators with different alkali contents (expressed as %Na₂O), as well as the incorporation of soluble silicates (Ms content). The production of binary geopolymeric pastes based on the use of two industrial wastes: fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) and aluminum anodizing sludge (AAS), was also assessed. The content in mass of BA/FCC and BA/AAS ranged from 100/0, 90/10; 80/20 and 70/30. Systems with soluble silicates as activator in a molar ratio SiO₂/Na₂O of 1.0 (Ms = 1.0) and Na₂O content of 15%, showed the best results of mechanical strength (42 MPa at day 28^th). The improvement is up to 5X when compared to NaOH based systems. For systems with partial replacement of BA of 10% of AAS and 20% of FCC (80/20), the presence of soluble silicates was also effective to increase compressive strength.