The separation of the temporal and the divine spheres: the moral and political implications of "secularisation", c.1580-c.1620

This thesis addresses the problem of the challenges posed to the role and status of the revealed Christian religion and theology in people's lives and world-views in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. It examines the problem as faced and expressed by certain thinkers of the period in western Europe, broadly defined.Although these challenges have been long been regarded by historians within the general notion of 'secularisation', this was not the case for the period in question. That religion was inescapable for the period in question is indisputable; therefore, what did, in fact, characterise the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries was a growing uneasiness, a questioning of the role of religion, a fluidity of the boundaries between sacred and profane and a continuous redefinition of fundamental concepts. Religion was thus central even if challenged, as thinkers were struggling to define their views with reference to, or as opposed to, its precepts. In view of that, in place of the terms 'secularism' and 'secularisation' this thesis prefers to talk about the distancing between the temporal and the divine spheres, and the redefinition of public and private. The focus of this dissertation is on some aspects of this vast question; it aims to address some of its implications in the moral and political realms this questioning could have, as experienced through the struggle of Europeans to determine the role they wanted to ascribe to religion within their life and world-views.In order to accomplish this, this thesis brings together four thinkers who actively engaged with the question from various angles and from different geographical, experiential and intellectual standpoints. More specifically, it examines four cases from four distinct areas of what now constitutes western Europe. It looks at the writings of four very influential thinkers of the period c.1580 - c.1620: Pierre Charron, a French theologian (1541-1603); the work of Justus Lipsius, a Flemish scholar (1547-1606); the work of Paolo Sarpi, a Venetian friar and advisor to the Venetian Republic (1552-1623); and lastly, the work of King James VI of Scotland and I of England (1566-1625). The four authors have been chosen mainly on the grounds of their contribution to the discussion about the relationship between politics and religion, and morality and religion. They represent a growing body of people who during the period that concerns us here had begun to doubt the singularity and authority of the Christian religion in matters of politics and morals. In this respect, the four case studies serve to illustrate the types of questions raised about the role of religion in people's lives and world-views in the period, in the wider area of western Europe. They thus exemplify the various areas from whence those questions arose, while the variance in the genres of the texts and the situation of their authors operates as an indication of the different facets of the same inescapable problem.All four authors in question grappled in their works with the question of the status of religion as a defining factor in the way people conceived of the Church, the state, politics in general, truth and ethics, sacred and profane - ideas about divine and temporal morality and their relation; the distinction between public and private; separation of ecclesiastical and secular jurisdiction; the distinction between an internalised notion of religion and an external; theory and practice; and finally the relation and compatibility (or not) of religion with politics; religion and philosophy; and politics and morality. What makes these contemplatives additionally interesting is that they were regarded as ambivalent in their religious convictions. In this respect, tills thesis is essentially an exploration in the world of ideas and shared assumptions (mentalities), addressing questions regarding the limits of the thinkable' and the ways in which people of the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century understood the world around them and its structures.Alongside this main issue, the dissertation is also interested in questions pertaining to the implantation and circulation of ideas, and appropriations of intellectual themes, while also addressing some aspect of the complex relationship between theory and practice. More particularly, it concentrates on the degree to which experience informed theory or the other way rormd, as all the authors imder scrutiny were theorists engaged with events aroimd them. Finally, this thesis highlights the benefits of studies of intellectual history or mentalities that arc not circumscribed by traditional national and confessional boundaries or between political and religious considerations

Exploring the landscape of immunotherapy approaches in sarcomas

Sarcomas comprise a heterogenous group of malignancies, of more than 100 different entities, arising from mesenchymal tissue, and accounting for 1% of adult malignancies. Surgery, radiotherapy and systemic therapy constitute the therapeutic armamentarium against sarcomas, with surgical excision and conventional chemotherapy, remaining the mainstay of treatment for local and advanced disease, respectively. The prognosis for patients with metastatic disease is dismal and novel therapeutic approaches are urgently required to improve survival outcomes. Immunotherapy, is a rapidly evolving field in oncology, which has been successfully applied in multiple cancers to date. Immunomodulating antibodies, adoptive cellular therapy, cancer vaccines, and cytokines have been tested in patients with different types of sarcomas through clinical trials, pilot studies, retrospective and prospective studies. The results of these studies regarding the efficacy of different types of immunotherapies in sarcomas are conflicting, and the application of immunotherapy in daily clinical practice remains limited. Additional clinical studies are ongoing in an effort to delineate the role of immunotherapy in patients with specific sarcoma subtypes

Gastric Collision Tumors: An Insight into Their Origin and Clinical Significance

Collision tumors are rare neoplasms displaying two distinct cell populations developing in juxtaposition to one another without areas of intermingling. They are rare entities with only 63 cases described in English literature. Tumors encountered are gastric adenocarcinomas colliding with lymphomas, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, squamous cell carcinomas, and neuroendocrine tumors. Their cell origin is obsolete by the time of diagnosis. Different tumorigenesis theories have been suggested to explain their behavior, yet none has managed to provide satisfactory explanation for all cases. Clinically they are indistinguishable from the dominant tumor. Lack of data does not allow detailed assessment of their behavior yet they seem aggressive neoplasms with dismal prognosis. The majority of cases have been diagnosed postoperatively during histologic examination of specimens. There are no guidelines or concrete evidence to support best way of adjuvant or other types of treatment. However, these rare neoplasms might help in unlocking secrets of cancer behavior including tumorigenesis, differentiation, and adhesion and thus clinicians should be aware of their existence

Mental Health and Adherence to COVID-19 Protective Behaviors among Cancer Patients during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An International, Multinational Cross-Sectional Study

A population-based cross-sectional study was conducted during the first COVID-19 wave, to examine the impact of COVID-19 on mental health using an anonymous online survey, enrolling 9565 individuals in 78 countries. The current sub-study examined the impact of the pandemic and the associated lockdown measures on the mental health, and protective behaviors of cancer patients in comparison to non-cancer participants. Furthermore, 264 participants from 30 different countries reported being cancer patients. The median age was 51.5 years, 79.9% were female, and 28% had breast cancer. Cancer participants reported higher self-efficacy to follow recommended national guidelines regarding COVID-19 protective behaviors compared to non-cancer participants (p < 0.01). They were less stressed (p < 0.01), more psychologically flexible (p < 0.01), and had higher levels of positive affect compared to non-cancer participants. Amongst cancer participants, the majority (80.3%) reported COVID-19, not their cancer, as their priority during the first wave of the pandemic and females reported higher levels of stress compared to males. In conclusion, cancer participants appeared to have handled the unpredictable nature of the first wave of the pandemic efficiently, with a positive attitude towards an unknown and otherwise frightening situation. Larger, cancer population specific and longitudinal studies are warranted to ensure adequate medical and psychological care for cancer patients.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluating the Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Mutation D614G on Transmissibility and Pathogenicity.

Global dispersal and increasing frequency of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variant D614G are suggestive of a selective advantage but may also be due to a random founder effect. We investigate the hypothesis for positive selection of spike D614G in the United Kingdom using more than 25,000 whole genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Despite the availability of a large dataset, well represented by both spike 614 variants, not all approaches showed a conclusive signal of positive selection. Population genetic analysis indicates that 614G increases in frequency relative to 614D in a manner consistent with a selective advantage. We do not find any indication that patients infected with the spike 614G variant have higher COVID-19 mortality or clinical severity, but 614G is associated with higher viral load and younger age of patients. Significant differences in growth and size of 614G phylogenetic clusters indicate a need for continued study of this variant

Evaluating the Effects of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Mutation D614G on Transmissibility and Pathogenicity

Global dispersal and increasing frequency of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein variant D614G are suggestive of a selective advantage but may also be due to a random founder effect. We investigate the hypothesis for positive selection of spike D614G in the United Kingdom using more than 25,000 whole genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Despite the availability of a large dataset, well represented by both spike 614 variants, not all approaches showed a conclusive signal of positive selection. Population genetic analysis indicates that 614G increases in frequency relative to 614D in a manner consistent with a selective advantage. We do not find any indication that patients infected with the spike 614G variant have higher COVID-19 mortality or clinical severity, but 614G is associated with higher viral load and younger age of patients. Significant differences in growth and size of 614G phylogenetic clusters indicate a need for continued study of this variant

Gastric Collision Tumors: An Insight into Their Origin and Clinical Significance

Collision tumors are rare neoplasms displaying two distinct cell populations developing in juxtaposition to one another without areas of intermingling. They are rare entities with only 63 cases described in English literature. Tumors encountered are gastric adenocarcinomas colliding with lymphomas, gastrointestinal stromal tumors, squamous cell carcinomas, and neuroendocrine tumors. Their cell origin is obsolete by the time of diagnosis. Different tumorigenesis theories have been suggested to explain their behavior, yet none has managed to provide satisfactory explanation for all cases. Clinically they are indistinguishable from the dominant tumor. Lack of data does not allow detailed assessment of their behavior yet they seem aggressive neoplasms with dismal prognosis. The majority of cases have been diagnosed postoperatively during histologic examination of specimens. There are no guidelines or concrete evidence to support best way of adjuvant or other types of treatment. However, these rare neoplasms might help in unlocking secrets of cancer behavior including tumorigenesis, differentiation, and adhesion and thus clinicians should be aware of their existence

Patients' perspectives related to ethical issues and risks in precision medicine : a systematic review

Background: Precision medicine is growing due to technological advancements including next generation sequencing techniques and artificial intelligence. However, with the application of precision medicine many ethical and potential risks may emerge. Although, its benefits and potential harms are relevantly known to professional societies and practitioners, patients' attitudes toward these potential ethical risks are not well-known. The aim of this systematic review was to focus on patients' perspective on ethics and risks that may rise with the application of precision medicine. Methods: A systematic search was conducted on 4/1/2023 in the database of PubMed, for the period 1/1/2012 to 4/1/2023 identifying 914 articles. After initial screening, only 50 articles were found to be relevant. From these 50 articles, 24 articles were included in this systematic review, 2 articles were excluded as not in English language, 1 was a review, and 23 articles did not include enough relevant qualitative data regarding our research question to be included. All full texts were evaluated following PRISMA guidelines for reporting systematic reviews following the Joanna Briggs Institute criteria. Results: There were eight main themes emerging from the point of view of the patients regarding ethical concerns and risks of precision medicine: privacy and security of patient data, economic impact on the patients, possible harms of precision medicine including psychosocial harms, risk for discrimination of certain groups, risks in the process of acquiring informed consent, mistrust in the provider and in medical research, issues with the diagnostic accuracy of precision medicine and changes in the doctor-patient relationship. Conclusion: Ethical issues and potential risks are important for patients in relation to the applications of precision medicine and need to be addressed with patient education, dedicated research and official policies. Further research is needed for validation of the results and awareness of these findings can guide clinicians to understand and address patients concerns in clinical praxis