The Rhetoric of Illusion: Persuasion and Response in Forgery, the Arts and Other Deceptions (1600-1750)

This dissertation consists of five articles and focuses on five cases of deception, all presented and exposed in early modern London: The Originall of Idolatries (1624), Alexander Bendo’s mountebank handbill (1676), George Psalmanazar’s An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa (1704), the case of Mary Toft (1726) and the Great Bottle Hoax (1749). These are all examples of creative forgery, fakes without a prototype, that were created to be woven into the fabric of reality. The articles discuss the cases’ dynamics of persuasion and response within their respective cultural contexts but they also explore the wider implications of the five cases and what they can tell us about the perception and role of forgery in early modern culture. Why did early modern illusionist artists and playwrights explicitly compare their work to this kind of deception? How did forgery contribute to the development of the distinction between fiction and scholarship? And what can discussions of newly exposed forgeries tell us about the cultural negotiation of the concepts of reality, authenticity and originality in early modern England?Medieval and Early Modern Studie

Total knee arthroplasty among working-age patients

The number of working-age patients receiving total knee arthroplasty for end-stage knee osteoarthritis is rapidly rising. Working-age patients represent a relatively new group of patients, as they do not only expect pain relief and improved quality of life after surgery, but also want and need to participate in the workforce again. However, literature of total knee arthroplasty among working-age patients is scarce. The aim of this thesis was therefore to expand our knowledge of working-age patients receiving total knee arthroplasty, from their preoperative state to postoperative outcomes using a biopsychosocial approach, with a specific focus on work. It was found that working-age patients had positive outcomes after total knee arthroplasty with respect to physical impairments and activity limitations, but the length of recovery often takes longer than the expected three months. Those who returned to work after six months experienced more pain and worse physical functioning preoperatively, and after surgery had worse recovery of pain, stiffness and physical functioning. Furthermore, patients reported substantial work productivity losses one-year after surgery whereby patients dealing with pain catastrophizing reported even higher productivity losses. Finally, physical activity was measured objectively one-year after surgery, which revealed that working-age patients were mainly sedentary during the day. This puts them at risk for adverse health outcomes. We recommend a tailored approach for working-age patients who are planned for knee replacement, already starting during preoperative counselling and continuing during postoperative rehabilitation, in order to enhance recovery and facilitate return to work

Voice onset time in individuals with vocal hyperfunction

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the etiology and physiology of vocal hyperfunction (VH) using the acoustical measure of voice onset time (VOT). METHOD: Twenty-eight women enrolled as participants in the study, including speakers with a diagnosis of VH (n=14), and age- and sex-matched control participants (n=14). Participants produced three repetitions of distinct VCV combinations of the vowels /α/ and /u/, and stopped voiced and voiceless cognates (e.g., /p/, /b/). Mean VOT was calculated for the three repetitions, and a coefficient of variation (CoV) was calculated for each set to determine variance of VOT. Two separate ANOVAs were completed for mean VOT and CoV of VOT with main effects of group, voiced vs. voiceless plosive, vowel, and place of articulation, and interactions between each variable and group. RESULTS: The first ANOVA model revealed no differences in mean VOT between groups. The second ANOVA revealed statistically significant main effects between groups (p <.001) for the CoV data with a small effect size. No interaction effects were significant for either model. Conclusion: We determined that CoV, a measure of variation in VOTs, was significantly different between healthy speakers and speakers with VH. These results provide further evidence of a speech-motor control deficit in individuals diagnosed with VH, in that they may have more variable targets during voice production.2020-07-06T00:00:00

Reductions in the dietary niche of southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) from the Holocene to the Anthropocene.

The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a marine mammal hunted to near extinction during the 1800s. Despite their well-known modern importance as a keystone species, we know little about historical sea otter ecology. Here, we characterize the ecological niche of ancient southern sea otters (E. lutris nereis) using δ13C analysis and δ15N analysis of bones recovered from archaeological sites spanning ~7,000 to 350 years before present (N = 112 individuals) at five regions along the coast of California. These data are compared with previously published data on modern animals (N = 165) and potential modern prey items. In addition, we analyze the δ15N of individual amino acids for 23 individuals to test for differences in sea otter trophic ecology through time. After correcting for tissue-specific and temporal isotopic effects, we employ nonparametric statistics and Bayesian niche models to quantify differences among ancient and modern animals. We find ancient otters occupied a larger isotopic niche than nearly all modern localities; likely reflecting broader habitat and prey use in prefur trade populations. In addition, ancient sea otters at the most southerly sites occupied an isotopic niche that was more than twice as large as ancient otters from northerly regions. This likely reflects greater invertebrate prey diversity in southern California relative to northern California. Thus, we suggest the potential dietary niche of sea otters in southern California could be larger than in central and northern California. At two sites, Año Nuevo and Monterey Bay, ancient otters had significantly higher δ15N values than modern populations. Amino acid δ15N data indicated this resulted from shifting baseline isotope values, rather than a change in sea otter trophic ecology. Our results help in better understanding the contemporary ecological role of sea otters and exemplify the strength of combing zooarchaeological and biological information to provide baseline data for conservation efforts