Mapping Women\u27s Movement in Medieval England

This thesis investigates women’s geographical movement in medieval England from the perspective of mobility and freedom. It uses pilgrimage accounts from medieval miracle story collections and to gather information about individual travel patterns. The study uses GIS to analyze gendered mobility patterns, and to investigate whether there were noticeable differences in the distance which men and women traveled and the geographical area of the country they originated. It also analyzes the nearness of men’s and women’s respective origin towns to alternative pilgrimage locations, as a means of examining the factors determining gendered travel mobility. The study finds that women’s travel distances were less than men’s, especially in the later medieval period, but that they were in fact more likely than men to come from areas proximate to alternative pilgrimage sites. This suggests the existence of higher mobility capacity for women living in areas with greater contact with other travelers

Processing Piety and the Materiality of Spiritual Mission at Syon Abbey, 1415-1539

This dissertation examines the intersection of spiritual values and material life at Syon Abbey, a wealthy Brigittine double monastery in late medieval England. As an institution it was, paradoxically, directed primarily toward an evangelical goal, while being focused on contemplative women who were strictly enclosed. In this dissertation, I assert that this apparent contradiction was resolved through a high degree of collaboration between the abbey’s religious women and men. I argue that Brigittine monasticism, and that of Syon in particular, was uniquely attuned to metaphors and meanings of materiality, which enabled the abbey to transform the women’s mundane material life of food, clothing, architecture, work, finance, and even bureaucracy, into spiritual fruits to be shared with the Syon brethren through dialogue within confessional relationships, and subsequently, with the laity through the media of sermons, sacraments, books, and conversation. I use the abbey’s extensive household financial accounts in conjunction with Brigittine writings and monastic legislative documents to examine the intersection of ideal material life and its spiritual meaning on the one hand, and the abbey’s lived materiality as reflected in its internal economic and administrative actions, on the other. The central question is the degree to which Syon’s material life was one of luxury in keeping with what the Order’s founder, Saint Birgitta, would have seen as worldly excess, or one of moderate asceticism, in keeping with the Brigittine Rule. Major findings are that in most respects (financial management, gender power, officer appointments, clothing, and some aspects of food), Syon’s materiality was lived in accordance with the Rule and the Brigittine mission, but that in some respects, it erred on the side of elite display and consumption (the majority of food items and the architecture and decoration of the abbey church), and in others, the source material is too incomplete to enable conclusions (the decoration of monastic buildings and the distribution of alms). In addition, by analysing the income from boarding of visitors and offerings from pilgrims, I examine the degree of Syon’s impact on the laity and how it changed with the approaching Dissolution, concluding that the abbey had a significant impact that declined only when legal restrictions were applied.Several scholarships made this research possible. My many thanks to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Gates Cambridge Trust, for providing me with a substantial scholarship, and to the UK Home Office for awarding me an Overseas Research Scholarship. Funding for my studies was also generously given by St John’s College, Cambridge, and by the Cambridge History Faculty’s Prince Consort Fund, and Ellen McArthur Fund

Etude de convergence a-priori d'une méthode Galerkin Discontinue en maillage hybride et non-conforme pour résoudre les équations de Maxwell instationnaires

Nous nous intéressons ici à une méthode Garlerkin Discontinue en Domaine Temporel (GDDT) pour la résolution numérique du système des équations de Maxwell instationnaires. Cette méthode est formulée sur des maillages hybrides et non-conformes combinant une triangulation non-structurée pour la discrétisation des objets de formes irrégulières avec une quadrangulation structurée (composée d'éléments orthogonaux de grandes tailles) pour le reste du domaine de calcul. Au sein de chaque élément, le champ électromagnétique est approximé pour une interpolation nodale d'ordre arbitrairement élevé, on utilise un flux centré pour les intégrales de surfaces et un schéma saute-mouton d'ordre 2 pour l'intégration en temps des équations semi-discrétisées associées. Le principal but est d'améliorer la flexibilité et l'efficacité de la méthode GDDT. Nous formulons les schémas de discrétisation en 3D, nous exposons la preuve détaillée de l'analyse mathématique de convergence a-priori en 3D. Enfin, la performance et la convergence numérique sont démontrées pour différents cas tests en 2D

Approaching the Dirac point in high mobility multi-layer epitaxial graphene

Multi-layer epitaxial graphene (MEG) is investigated using far infrared (FIR) transmission experiments in the different limits of low magnetic fields and high temperatures. The cyclotron-resonance like absorption is observed at low temperature in magnetic fields below 50 mT, allowing thus to probe the nearest vicinity of the Dirac point and to estimate the conductivity in nearly undoped graphene. The carrier mobility is found to exceed 250,000 cm$^2$/(V.s). In the limit of high temperatures, the well-defined Landau level (LL) quantization is observed up to room temperature at magnetic fields below 1 T, a phenomenon unique in solid state systems. A negligible increase in the width of the cyclotron resonance lines with increasing temperature indicates that no important scattering mechanism is thermally activated, supporting recent expectations of high room-temperature mobilities in graphene.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

The Olympia anatomic polished cemented stem is associated with a high survivorship, excellent hip-specific functional outcome, and high satisfaction levels:follow-up of 239 consecutive patients beyond 15 years

Introduction: The Olympia femoral stem is a stainless steel, anatomically shaped, polished and three-dimensionally tapered implant designed for use in cemented total hip arthroplasty (THA). The primary aim of this study was to determine the long-term survivorship, radiographic outcome, and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) of the Olympia stem. Patients and methods: Between May 2003 and December 2005, 239 patients (264 THAs) underwent a THA with an Olympia stem in our institution. Patient-reported outcome measures were assessed using the Oxford Hip Score (OHS), EuroQol-5 dimensions (EQ-5D) score, and patient satisfaction at mean 10 years following THA. Patient records and radiographs were then reviewed at a mean of 16.5 years (SD 0.7, 15.3–17.8) following THA to identify occurrence of complications or revision surgery for any cause following surgery. Radiographs were assessed for lucent lines and lysis according to Gruen’s zones Results: Mean patient age at surgery was 68.0 years (SD 10.9, 31–93 years). There were 156 women (65%, 176 THAs). Osteoarthritis was the indication for THA in 204 patients (85%). All cause stem survivorship at 10 years was 99.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 97.9%–100%) and at 15 years was 97.5% (94.6%–100%). The 15-year stem survival for aseptic loosening was 100%. Analysis of all-cause THA failure demonstrated a survivorship of 98.5% (96.3%–100%) at 10 years and 95.9% (92.4%–99.4%) at 15 years. There were 9 THAs with non-progressive lucent lines in a single Gruen zone and 3 had lines in two zones, and no patient demonstrated signs for lysis. At a mean of 10-year (SD 0.8, 8.7–11.3) follow-up, mean OHS was 39 (SD 10.3, range 7–48) and 94% of patients reported being very satisfied or satisfied with their THA. Conclusions: The Olympia stem demonstrated excellent 10-year PROMs and very high rates of stem survivorship at final follow-up beyond 15 years

Servants and masters: an activity theory investigation of human-AI roles in the performance of work

Organizations considering AI adoption must be mindful of media that portrays dystopian future scenarios. While machine sentience remains philosophically and ethically moot, the future implications of AI adoption are unclear. The issues that surround AI adoption need to be examined but there are a lack of implementations cases around which empirical research can be undertaken and practical experience can be gained. AI adoption needs to be considered from multiple viewpoints including, but not necessarily limited to the social, ethical and legal issues, and not merely be reduced to questions of financial return or organizational efficiency

Effect of interactions of plant phenolics with bovine meat proteins on their antibacterial activity

The activity of 5 phenolics totally inhibiting the growth of Staphylococcus aureus CNRZ3 at a 1 g L−1 concentration in Mueller-Hinton broth for 24 h incubation at 37 °C was reevaluated at 37 °C for 24 h, 15 °C for 6 days, or 6 °C for 8 days in the presence of up to 20% (w/w) bovine meat proteins to mimic the temperature of refrigerated storage of bovine meat and its protein content, respectively. These changes affected in a different way the antibacterial activity of the 5 phenolics. Isobutyl-4-hydroxybenzoate kept its bactericidal activity, while naphthazarin was bactericidal at 6 °C and 15 °C but not at 37 °C in the presence of bovine meat proteins. Gallocyanin was bactericidal at 37 °C up to a 5% (w/w) protein content in the medium but not at 15 °C or 6 °C. Resveratrol and chrysin always lost their bacteriostatic activity when bovine meat proteins were added. The partition coefficient at 6 °C of each phenolic between a 20% (w/w) bovine meat extract suspension with and without proteins was determined. The antibacterial activity reduction of phenolics in the presence of bovine meat proteins was correlated with their affinity for bovine meat protein