Sing No Sad Songs for Me : A Study of the Influence of the Oxford Movement upon Christina Rossetti as Evidenced in Her Poetry

Christina Rossetti was largely influenced by the religious reformation known as the Oxford Movement; this study attempts to record that influence by discussing the etiology and the doctrines of the Movement in relationship to Christina\u27s life and her poetry. A cursory review of the topics of Miss Rossetti\u27s poetry, based on her work published in The Poetical Works of Christina Georgina Rossetti, is included, in addition to a more in-depth evaluation of selected poems. A partial biographical study is offered, which relies primarily upon William Rossetti\u27s Memoir to the Poetical Works and The Family Letters of Christina Georgina Rossetti. The significant studies of the Oxford Movement which were consulted are included in the bibliography of this thesis study. Christina Rossetti, one of the few outstanding women poets Britain has produced, was immensely influenced by the religious milieu of her home and her country. She was born on December 5, 1830, the youngest of the four Rossetti children, and was early indoctrinated with the teachings and practices of the Church of England by her mother, Frances Lavinia Polidori. Christina was educated at home by Mrs. Rossetti who taught Christina and her sister Maria from the Bible, St. Augustine, and Pilgrim\u27s Progress, and further reinforced this religious training by involving her daughters with the religious movement to which she transferred her loyalty from the evangelical branch of the Church: the Tractarian or Oxford Movement. July 14, 1833 is the date which is often regarded as the founding date for the Oxford Movement; on this day John Keble delivered the assize sermon National Apostasy which openly addressed the ominous trend of interference by the state with matters of the Church. The trend was started with the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts and intensified with Catholic emancipation; the introduction in Parliament of the Church Temporalities Bill and the resulting suppression of ten Irish bishoprics was interpreted by many of England\u27s religious leaders as apostasy on the part of the nation. Further, leaders at Oxford were demanding extensive reforms within the framework of the Church, for the training system of clergymen had grown lax and the salary system among clergymen was grossly uneven. The stand of the Oxford scholars inevitably came to focus upon content, doctrine, for they were essentially promoting higher ideas of the Church than the political and popular notion of it. As the Movement accelerated, so did the controversy surrounding it; indeed, it became part of the consciousness of the general public through repeated publication of the widely sold Tracts for The Times. It was these Tracts, edited by Oxford theologian John H. Newman, which earned the proponents of the Oxford Movement the name Tractarians. Christina Rossetti was early exposed to and inf luenced by this religious renaissance and this influence is evident in her poetry. Among the doctrines embraced by members of the Tractarian movement which are evident in the themes of the poetry of Christina Rossetti, as well as in accounts of her character and personality, are the beliefs of the severity of the moral life, the necessity for thorough self-examination, the need to be humble and to mistrust oneself, and the acceptance of illness and suffering as purifying communications from God. Christina\u27s earliest poetry evidences a preoccupation with death, a discomfiture with earthly existence. She fell in love twice, but due to religious reasons, she never married. Of Christina\u27s poetry, the sections called Songs for Strangers and Pilgrims, Some Feasts and Fasts, 11 Divers Worlds: Time and Eternity, New Jerusalem and its Citizens, Christ Our All in All, Out of the Deep I Have Called Unto Thee, O Lord, Gifts and Graces, and The World: Self-Destruction total 449 poems; eleven of the sixteen sections deal with religious concerns or a discussion of impending death. Of the section entitled Juvenilia, most of the 54 poems are religious in nature. That leaves 226 general poems to be considered, as well as 140 poems for children. Although a good many of the general poems discuss lighter topics, the number that are devoted to spiritual concepts and death are substantial. There is evidence from Christina\u27s correspondence, and from her poetry that she was an imaginative, dynamic, cheerful, and fun-loving person. However, her tendency to become discouraged and to doubt herself often overshadows the brighter side of her nature. Although she repeatedly doubted herself and her spiritual worthiness, her concept of faith closely paralleled that of Tractarianism and her faith in God never wavered. Her religion was often a comfort to her and this comfort is expressed in some of her best poetry. The tragedy of Christina\u27s life is that she was seemingly never able to fully accept the assurance she often expresses in her work and that, while trying to cope with the inner turmoil her perpetual doubts created, she was content to choose death over life. She died of cancer in 1894. Her poetic gifts, however great or small their potential, were used to express a great concern which no desire for poetic excellence or self recognition could ever overshadow--her intense longing for a new life in the world to come

Self-incentives uniquely boost cessation in community-based stop smoking programs: Randomized controlled trial

Background: Self-incentives offer a plausible alternative to paying smokers to quit but have not yet been tested in a randomized controlled trial.  Purpose: The present study tested whether, compared with a control group, prompting smokers explicitly to self-incentivize if they abstain from smoking for a week or a month encouraged sustained abstinence.  Method: One hundred and fifty-nine smokers were recruited from stop smoking clinics and randomized to an active control condition (asked to form a plan to quit, n = 65) or one of two intervention conditions in which they were asked to form implementation intentions designed to ensure that they incentivized themselves if they had not smoked at all by the end of (a) the week (n = 44) or (b) the month (n = 50). The main outcome measure was self-reported abstinence at 3- and 6-month follow-ups, which was biochemically verified at baseline and in a subsample at 3-month follow-up.  Results: At 3-month follow-up, 34% (15/44; p < .05, d = 0.45) and 36% (18/50; p < .05, d = 0.49) of smokers abstained in the weekly and monthly self-incentivizing conditions respectively, compared with 15% (10/65) in the control. The same pattern of findings was observed at 6-month follow-up: 30% (13/44; p < .05, d = 0.35), 34% (17/50; p < .05, d = 0.45) and 15% (10/65) of smokers remained abstinent in the two intervention groups and control group, respectively.  Conclusions: Ensuring that smokers self-incentivized boosted significantly the effectiveness of the stop smoking program. Self-incentivizing implementation intentions could be implemented at low cost with high public health “reach” to change many health behaviors beyond smoking

How to harness and improve on video analysis for youth rugby player safety: A narrative review

Video analysis is a useful tool for injury surveillance in rugby union. There are few video analysis studies in the professional female game, with most studies published in the male elite/professional settings. Moreover, there is a sparsity of literature in youth rugby settings. The following narrative review outlines the strengths and limitations of the current video analysis literature for injury surveillance in youth rugby union, highlights the importance of video analysis for youth rugby player safety and welfare, and discusses recommendations for using video analysis to inform player safety in youth rugby

How to harness and improve on video analysis for youth rugby player safety: A narrative review

Video analysis is a useful tool for injury surveillance in rugby union. There are few video analysis studies in the professional female game, with most studies published in the male elite/professional settings. Moreover, there is a sparsity of literature in youth rugby settings. The following narrative review outlines the strengths and limitations of the current video analysis literature for injury surveillance in youth rugby union, highlights the importance of video analysis for youth rugby player safety and welfare, and discusses recommendations for using video analysis to inform player safety in youth rugby

Prion protein interacts with bace1 and differentially regulates its activity towards wild type and swedish mutant amyloid precursor protein

In Alzheimer disease amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides derived from the amyloid precursor protein (APP) accumulate in the brain. Cleavage of APP by the β-secretase BACE1 is the rate-limiting step in the production of Aβ. We have reported previously that the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) inhibited the action of BACE1 toward human wild type APP (APP(WT)) in cellular models and that the levels of endogenous murine Aβ were significantly increased in PrP(C)-null mouse brain. Here we investigated the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying this observation. PrP(C) interacted directly with the prodomain of the immature Golgi-localized form of BACE1. This interaction decreased BACE1 at the cell surface and in endosomes where it preferentially cleaves APP(WT) but increased it in the Golgi where it preferentially cleaves APP with the Swedish mutation (APP(Swe)). In transgenic mice expressing human APP with the Swedish and Indiana familial mutations (APP(Swe,Ind)), PrP(C) deletion had no influence on APP proteolytic processing, Aβ plaque deposition, or levels of soluble Aβ or Aβ oligomers. In cells, although PrP(C) inhibited the action of BACE1 on APP(WT), it did not inhibit BACE1 activity toward APP(Swe). The differential subcellular location of the BACE1 cleavage of APP(Swe) relative to APP(WT) provides an explanation for the failure of PrP(C) deletion to affect Aβ accumulation in APP(Swe,Ind) mice. Thus, although PrP(C) exerts no control on cleavage of APP(Swe) by BACE1, it has a profound influence on the cleavage of APP(WT), suggesting that PrP(C) may be a key protective player against sporadic Alzheimer disease

The Microevolution and Epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus Colonization during Atopic Eczema Disease Flare.

Staphylococcus aureus is an opportunistic pathogen and variable component of the human microbiota. A characteristic of atopic eczema (AE) is colonization by S. aureus, with exacerbations associated with an increased bacterial burden of the organism. Despite this, the origins and genetic diversity of S. aureus colonizing individual patients during AE disease flares is poorly understood. To examine the microevolution of S. aureus colonization, we deep sequenced S. aureus populations from nine children with moderate to severe AE and 18 non-atopic children asymptomatically carrying S. aureus nasally. Colonization by clonal S. aureus populations was observed in both AE patients and control participants, with all but one of the individuals carrying colonies belonging to a single sequence type. Phylogenetic analysis showed that disease flares were associated with the clonal expansion of the S. aureus population, occurring over a period of weeks to months. There was a significant difference in the genetic backgrounds of S. aureus colonizing AE cases versus controls (Fisher exact test, P = 0.03). Examination of intra-host genetic heterogeneity of the colonizing S. aureus populations identified evidence of within-host selection in the AE patients, with AE variants being potentially selectively advantageous for intracellular persistence and treatment resistance.CPH was supported by Wellcome Trust (grant number 104241/z/14/z). MTGH, KAP, and KO were supported by the Scottish Infection Research Network and Chief Scientist Office through the Scottish Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Institute consortium funding (CSO reference: SIRN10). Bioinformatics and computational biology analyses were supported by the University of St Andrews Bioinformatics Unit that is funded by a Wellcome Trust ISSF award (grant 097831/Z/11/Z). JP and MTGH were supported by Wellcome Trust grant 098051. AEM is supported by Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council grant BB/M014088/1. SJB is supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship in Clinical Science (106865/Z/15/Z)

The educational impact of assessment: a comparison of DOPS and MCQs

Aim: To evaluate the impact of two different assessment formats on the approaches to learning of final year veterinary students. The relationship between approach to learning and examination performance was also investigated. Method: An 18-item version of the Study Process Questionnaire (SPQ) was sent to 87 final year students. Each student responded to the questionnaire with regards to DOPS (Direct Observation of Procedural Skills) and a Multiple Choice Examination (MCQ). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 of the respondents to gain a deeper insight into the students’ perception of assessment. Results: Students’ adopted a deeper approach to learning for DOPS and a more surface approach with MCQs. There was a positive correlation between an achieving approach to learning and examination performance. Analysis of the qualitative data revealed that deep, surface and achieving approaches were reported by the students and seven major influences on their approaches to learning were identified: motivation, purpose, consequence, acceptability, feedback, time pressure and the individual difference of the students. Conclusions: The format of DOPS has a positive influence on approaches to learning. There is a conflict for students between preparing for final examinations and preparing for clinical practice

Evidence against a Human Cell-Specific Role for LRP6 in Anthrax Toxin Entry

The role of the cellular protein LRP6 in anthrax toxin entry is controversial. Previous studies showed that LRP6 was important for efficient intoxication of human M2182 prostate carcinoma cells but other studies performed with cells from gene-knockout mice demonstrated no role for either LRP6 or the related LRP5 protein in anthrax toxin entry. One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that LRP6 may be important for anthrax toxin entry into human, but not mouse, cells. To test this idea we have investigated the effect of knocking down LRP6 or LRP5 expression with siRNAs in human HeLa cells. We show here that efficient knockdown of either LRP6, LRP5, or both proteins has no influence on the kinetics of anthrax lethal toxin entry or MEK1 substrate cleavage in these cells. These data argue against a human-specific role for LRP6 in anthrax toxin entry and suggest instead that involvement of this protein may be restricted to certain cell types independently of their species of origin

Prevalence of multiple chronic conditions in the United States' Medicare population

In 2006, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which administers the Medicare program in the United States, launched the Chronic Condition Data Warehouse (CCW). The CCW contains all Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) institutional and non-institutional claims, nursing home and home health assessment data, and enrollment/eligibility information from January 1, 1999 forward for a random 5% sample of Medicare beneficiaries (and 100% of the Medicare population from 2000 forward). Twenty-one predefined chronic condition indicator variables are coded within the CCW, to facilitate research on chronic conditions