The Gawain-Poet and the Fourteenth-Century English Anticlerical Tradition

In this fresh reading of the Gawain-poet\u27s Middle English works (Cleanness, Patience, Pearl, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), Ethan Campbell argues that a central feature of their moral rhetoric is anticlerical critique. Written in an era when clerical corruption was a key concern for polemicists such as Richard FitzRalph and John Wyclif, as well as satirical poets such as John Gower, William Langland, and Geoffrey Chaucer, the Gawain poems feature an explicit attack on hypocritical priests in the opening lines of Cleanness as well as more subtle critiques embedded within depictions of flawed priest-like characters like the biblical prophet Jonah and the Green Knight, who grants a problematic absolution to Sir Gawain. Through a close reading of each poem with an eye toward congruencies with the poet\u27s contemporaries, Campbell situates the Gawain-poet\u27s works within the rich and varied textual environment of fourteenth-century English anticlericalism.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_rmemc/1002/thumbnail.jp

The Gawain-Poet and the Textual Environment of Fourteenth-Century English Anticlericalism

The 14th-century Middle English poems Cleanness and Patience, homiletic retellings of biblical stories which appear in the same manuscript as Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, offer moral lessons to a general Christian audience, but the introduction to Cleanness, with its reference to men whom prestez arn called, suggests that a central feature of their rhetoric is anticlerical critique. Priests do not appear as exemplars but as potentially filthy hypocrites who inspire God\u27s harshest wrath, since their sins may contaminate Christ\u27s body in the Eucharist. Using Cleanness\u27s opening lines as a guide, this dissertation reads both poems as a set of warnings and exhortations aimed particularly at clerics. Throughout Cleanness, priest-like characters such as Noah, Abraham, and Daniel struggle against ritual defilement, and Patience presents an extended example of a single character, the prophet Jonah, who shirks his duties as an absentee priest. These contextual readings situate the poems within the rich textual environment of 14th-century anticlericalism, including the works of archbishop Richard FitzRalph; poets John Gower, William Langland, and Geoffrey Chaucer; Oxford dissidents and Bible translators such as Nicholas Hereford; and, most notably, John Wyclif, the Oxford philosopher and preacher who inspired the heretical Lollard movement. The opening chapters present an overview of the anticlerical tradition in England and a summary of the central issues driving critique in the late 14th century. Subsequent chapters present close readings of Cleanness and Patience which foreground congruences between the Gawain-poet\u27s rhetoric and the anticlerical polemic favored by his contemporaries. Since anticlericalism became identified in the late 14th century with heretical positions on the sacraments such as Donatism and Lollardy, this analysis pays close attention to the poet\u27s references to baptism, penance, and the Eucharist, and concludes that, though he embraces clerically administered sacraments as essential elements of the Christian life, he shares many of the Lollards\u27 concerns about priestly corruption and its effects. The final chapter gives a similarly contextual reading to the two canonical works of the poet, Pearl and Sir Gawain, in which references to the priesthood are often overlooked, yet, I argue, crucial to each poem\u27s meaning

Good, Not Safe : Structure vs. Chaos in Narnia and the Writing Workshop

Considers Lewis as a member of a writing group, and its effect on his narrative techniques. Examines Lewis’s self-imposition of tight structure when writing for children, and the moments when his story escapes his own rules. Discusses using Lewis in the creative writing classroom

Regulation of DEPTOR Ubiquitination by Uric Acid in the Pancreatic β-Cell

As rates of non-communicable disease such as diabetes mellitus raise the questions regarding how these diseases arise becomes more pertinent. One of the major causes of these types of disease is the effects of the modern diet which is typically high in nutrients including sugars, fats, purines and salt. Of these nutrients, the effects of high purines have been underrepresented in the current body of research. Increased dietary purines result in a commensurate increase in the synthesis of uric acid elevating serum uric acid level. This increase induces hyperuricemia and has been correlated through epidemiological studies to the development and progression of degenerative diseases including diabetes mellitus. In an attempt to shed light on the mechanism that underpins this effect we have elected to investigate the effects of hyperuricemic conditions on the viability and growth of pancreatic β-cells through the use of live cell assays to evaluate: cellular metabolism, cell count, autophagy, and apoptosis. To explain any changes in pancreatic β-cell viability and proliferation, we also investigated how the stability of a cellular growth and viability regulating protein, DEPTOR, may change under hyperuricemic conditions. We did this by directly measuring DEPTOR-bound ubiquitin though the use of co-immunoprecipitation. To explain any observed changes in DEPTOR ubiquitination we also investigated the expression of proteins responsible for DEPTOR ubiquitination, β-TrCP, and DEPTOR deubiquitination, USP3. Finally, we investigated if there was any direct interaction between DEPTOR and uric acid using co-immunoprecipitation to test for any potential bound uric acid as it may provide insights into any changes in DEPTOR ubiquitination, β-TrCP expression, or USP3 expression. As a result of this investigation, we found that hyperuricemic conditions are sufficient to cause significant reductions in pancreatic β-cell metabolism and cell mass and a significant increase in iii autophagy and apoptosis. This was paired with an increase in DEPTOR stability arising from the observed reduction in DEPTOR-bound ubiquitin. This reduction in DEPTOR-bound ubiquitin was caused by a significant shift in the expression of β-TrCP and USP3 which resulted in a net shift in the balance if ubiquitination to favour the removal of ubiquitin over its binding. Additionally, our attempts to probe for potential DEPTOR-bound uric acid were successful and found that uric acid did in fact bind to DEPTOR and that this binding may explain what initiated the shifted balance of DEPTOR ubiquitination. These results have presented some interesting questions as they are the first to indicate: uric acid is capable of modifying DEPTOR ubiquitination, USP3 was identified as a new major regulator of DEPTOR stability within the pancreatic β-cell, uric acid as a possible new regulator of cell function that has as yet gone unnoticed, and finally the differences between mouse and human responses to hyperuricemia may provide new insights into the potential mechanism that underpins uric acid’s role in the regulation of ubiquitination. In summary, in our attempts to better understand the causes of uric acid driven increases in diabetes mellitus risk we have found that hyperuricemic conditions are sufficient to reduce the function and mass of pancreatic β-cells and that this effect is caused by a previously undescribed uric acid-driven change in regulatory protein levels

Symmetry-breaking and chaos in electron transport in semiconductor superlattices

We study the motion of electrons in a single miniband of a semiconductor superlattice driven by THz electric field polarized along the growth direction. We work in the semiclassical balance-equation model, including different elastic and inelastic scattering rates, and incorporating the self-consistent electric field generated by electron motion. We explore regions of complex dynamics, which can include chaotic behaviour and symmetry-breaking. We estimate the magnitudes of dc current and dc voltage that spontaneously appear in regions of broken-symmetry for parameters characteristic of modern semiconductor superlattices. This work complements PRL 80(1998)2669 [ cond-mat/9709026 ].Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTEX, EPS

Mitigating alemtuzumab-associated autoimmunity in MS: A whack-a-mole B-cell depletion strategy

Objective: To determine whether the punctuated administration of low-dose rituximab, temporally linked to B-cell hyperrepopulation (defined when the return of CD19+ B cells approximates 40%-50% of baseline levels as measured before alemtuzumab treatment inception), can mitigate alemtuzumab-associated secondary autoimmunity. Methods: In this hypothesis-driven pilot study, 10 patients received low-dose rituximab (50-150 mg/m2), a chimeric anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, after either their first or second cycles of alemtuzumab. These patients were then routinely assessed for the development of autoimmune disorders and safety signals related to the use of dual monoclonal antibody therapy. Results: Five patients received at least 1 IV infusion of low-dose rituximab, following alemtuzumab therapy, with a mean follow-up of 41 months. None of the 5 patients developed secondary autoimmune disorders. An additional 5 patients with follow-up over less than 24 months received at least 1 infusion of low-dose rituximab treatment following alemtuzumab treatment. No secondary autoimmune diseases were observed. Conclusions: An anti-CD20 whack-a-mole B-cell depletion strategy may serve to mitigate alemtuzumab-associated secondary autoimmunity in MS by reducing the imbalance in B- and T-cell regulatory networks during immune reconstitution. We believe that these observations warrant further investigation. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class IV evidence that for people with MS, low-dose rituximab following alemtuzumab treatment decreases the risk of alemtuzumab-associated secondary autoimmune diseases

Spontaneous DC Current Generation in a Resistively Shunted Semiconductor Superlattice Driven by a TeraHertz Field

We study a resistively shunted semiconductor superlattice subject to a high-frequency electric field. Using a balance equation approach that incorporates the influence of the electric circuit, we determine numerically a range of amplitude and frequency of the ac field for which a dc bias and current are generated spontaneously and show that this region is likely accessible to current experiments. Our simulations reveal that the Bloch frequency corresponding to the spontaneous dc bias is approximately an integer multiple of the ac field frequency.Comment: 8 pages, Revtex, 3 Postscript figure

Concert recording 2013-12-04

[Track 01]. Omaggio / Manuel de Falla -- [Track 02]. Bossa cancao / Frank Basan -- [Track 03]. Spanish study / Frederick Noad -- [Track 04]. Adelita / Francisco Tarrega -- [Track 05]. Everything happens to me / Dennis & Adair -- [Track 06]. 4 on 6 / Wes Montgomery -- [Track 07]. All of me / Simons and Marks -- [Track 08]. Exactly like you / McHugh & Fields -- [Track 09]. Pent up house / Sonny Rollins -- [Track 10]. Ornithology / Charlie Parker -- [Track 11]. Black Orpheus / Luiz Bonfa -- [Track 12]. Bluesette / Toots Thielemans -- [Track 13]. Asturias / Isaac Albeniz

Concert recording 2022-11-08

[Track 1]. Beau soir / Claude Debussy -- The lass from the Low Countree / John Jacob Niles – [Track 2]. Into the night / Clara Edwards -- [Track 3]. An Silvia / Franz Schubert -- [Track 4]. Se tu m’ami, se sospiri / Alessandro Parisotti -- [Track 5]. Erlafsee / Franz Schubert -- [Track 6]. Vittoria, mio core / Giacomo Carissimi -- [Track 7]. Aufenthalt / Franz Schubert -- [Track 8]. Amarilli, mia bella / Giulio Caccini -- [Track 9]. There’s a Fine, Fine Line, from Avenue Q / Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx -- [Track 10]. Go, lovely rose / Roger Quilter -- [Track 11]. Vagabond / Ralph Vaughan Williams -- [Track 12]. Sebben, crudele / Antonio Caldara -- [Track 13]. Love’s philosophy / Roger Quilter (1877–1953) -- [Track 14]. Perla gloria / Giovanni Bononcini -- [Track 15]. Money, O! / Michael Head -- [Track 16]. Lasciate mi morire / Claudio Monteverdi -- Across the western ocean / Arr. Celius Dougherty -- [Track 17]. Perduta ho la Speranza / Stefano Donaudy -- [Track 18]. Lonley House from Street Scene / Kurt Weill -- [Track 19]. Preghiera / Paolo Tosti -- [Track 20]. Allerseelen / Richard Strauss -- [Track 21]. Im wunderschönen Monat Mai / Robert Schumann -- [Track 22]. Una furtiva lagrima from L’elisir d’amore / Gaetano Donizetti -- [Track 23]. V’adoro, pupille, from Giulio Cesare / George Handel -- [Track 24]. Sympathy / Florence Price -- [Track 25]. The German U-boat captain / Gene Scheer -- [Track 26]. Eri tu che macchiavi, from Un Ballo in Maschera / Giuseppe Verdi