From St. Augustine and St. Denys to Olier and Bérulle’s Spiritual Revolution : Patristic and Seventeenth-Century Foundations of the Relations between Church and State in Québec

By way of statutes on the façade of L’Hôtel du Parlement de Québec (especially Marie de l’Incarnation, Jean-Jacques Olier, and François de Laval), we explore the Augustinian and Pseudo-Dionysian foundations of the spirituality of New France. By way of records of the life there, and the textbooks used in them, we investigate the kinds of Augustinianism taught and inculcated at the Séminaire de Québec and the Grand Séminaire de Montréal ; particularly, we observe the passage from Gallican to Ultramontane ecclesiology. Olier’s surprising presence on the façade leads us to the Sulpicians and the political theology of the Cardinal de Bérulle. The Copernican revolution effected by this Dionysian hierarch brings a new interpretation of the sacrifice of Christ and the centrality of the priest. The institutional and ascetical implications of this new orientation in Christianity were worked out in New France far more completely than in the Hexagon. We conclude with a consideration of the character and role of the Catholic Church formed in this way in Post Conquest Québec and the consequences this had for the definitions of provincial and federal powers in the Canadian constitution. The Québec Church showed not only the enormous success modern clericalist and centralised Catholicism, with the seminary as its instrument, could achieve but also its limits.Prenant comme point de départ les sculptures qui ornent la façade de l’Assemblée nationale du Québec, notamment celles de Marie de l’Incarnation, Jean-Jacques Olier et François de Laval, cet article dégage les fondements augustiniens et pseudo-dionysiens de la spiritualité de la Nouvelle-France. En nous basant sur les comptes rendus de la vie en Nouvelle-France et sur les manuels qui y furent utilisés, nous cherchons à déterminer le type d’augustinisme qui fut enseigné au Séminaire de Québec et au Grand Séminaire de Montréal. Nous notons le passage d’une ecclésiologie gallicane à une conception ultramontaine ainsi que l’importance prise par la théologie politique du Cardinal de Bérulle. La révolution copernicienne réalisée par ce hiérarque dionysien entraîna une nouvelle interprétation du sacrifice du Christ et du rôle du prêtre. Les implications institutionnelles et ascétiques d’une telle orientation apparaissent plus clairement en Nouvelle-France que dans la métropole. Nous concluons par des considérations sur la nature de l’Église catholique issue de ce mouvement, le rôle qu’elle joua dans le Québec d’après la conquête et l’impact de cette situation sur la détermination des pouvoirs fédéraux et provinciaux dans la constitution canadienne. L’Église du Québec a montré non seulement le succès que pouvait avoir un catholicisme clérical et centralisé, appuyé sur l’institution du séminaire, mais aussi ses limites

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for stroke recovery.

BACKGROUND: Stroke is the major cause of adult disability. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been used for many years to manage depression. Recently, small trials have demonstrated that SSRIs might improve recovery after stroke, even in people who are not depressed. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are the least biased way to bring together data from several trials. Given the promising effect of SSRIs on stroke recovery seen in small trials, a systematic review and meta-analysis is needed. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether SSRIs improve recovery after stroke, and whether treatment with SSRIs was associated with adverse effects. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Stroke Group Trials Register (August 2011), Cochrane Depression Anxiety and Neurosis Group Trials Register (November 2011), Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (The Cochrane Library 2011, Issue 8), MEDLINE (from 1948 to August 2011), EMBASE (from 1980 to August 2011), CINAHL (from 1982 to August 2011), AMED (Allied and Complementary Medicine) (from 1985 to August 2011), PsycINFO (from 1967 to August 2011) and PsycBITE (Pyschological Database for Brain Impairment Treatment Efficacy) (March 2012). To identify further published, unpublished and ongoing trials we searched trials registers, pharmaceutical websites, reference lists, contacted experts and performed citation tracking of included studies. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials that recruited stroke survivors (ischaemic or haemorrhagic) at any time within the first year. The intervention was any SSRI, given at any dose, for any period. We excluded drugs with mixed pharmacological effects. The comparator was usual care or placebo. In order to be included, trials had to collect data on at least one of our primary (dependence and disability) or secondary (impairments, depression, anxiety, quality of life, fatigue, healthcare cost, death, adverse events and leaving the trial early) outcomes. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We extracted data on demographics, type of stroke, time since stroke, our primary and secondary outcomes, and sources of bias. For trials in English, two review authors independently extracted data. For Chinese papers, one review author extracted data. We used standardised mean differences (SMD) to estimate treatment effects for continuous variables, and risk ratios (RR) for dichotomous effects, with their 95% confidence intervals (CIs). MAIN RESULTS: We identified 56 completed trials of SSRI versus control, of which 52 trials (4059 participants) provided data for meta-analysis. There were statistically significant benefits of SSRI on both of the primary outcomes: RR for reducing dependency at the end of treatment was 0.81 (95% CI 0.68 to 0.97) based on one trial, and for disability score, the SMD was 0.91 (95% CI 0.60 to 1.22) (22 trials involving 1343 participants) with high heterogeneity between trials (I(2) = 87%; P < 0.0001). For neurological deficit, depression and anxiety, there were statistically significant benefits of SSRIs. For neurological deficit score, the SMD was -1.00 (95% CI -1.26 to -0.75) (29 trials involving 2011 participants) with high heterogeneity between trials (I(2) = 86%; P < 0.00001). For dichotomous depression scores, the RR was 0.43 (95% CI 0.24 to 0.77) (eight trials involving 771 participants) with high heterogeneity between trials (I(2) = 77%; P < 0.0001). For continuous depression scores, the SMD was -1.91 (95% CI -2.34 to -1.48) (39 trials involving 2728 participants) with high heterogeneity between trials (I(2) = 95%; P < 0.00001). For anxiety, the SMD was -0.77 (95% CI -1.52 to -0.02) (eight trials involving 413 participants) with high heterogeneity between trials (I(2) = 92%; P < 0.00001). There was no statistically significant benefit of SSRI on cognition, death, motor deficits and leaving the trial early. For cognition, the SMD was 0.32 (95% CI -0.23 to 0.86), (seven trials involving 425 participants) with high heterogeneity between trials (I(2) = 86%; P < 0.00001). The RR for death was 0.76 (95% CI 0.34 to 1.70) (46 trials involving 3344 participants) with no heterogeneity between trials (I(2) = 0%; P = 0.85). For motor deficits, the SMD was -0.33 (95% CI -1.22 to 0.56) (two trials involving 145 participants). The RR for leaving the trial early was 1.02 (95% CI 0.86 to 1.21) in favour of control, with no heterogeneity between trials. There was a non-significant excess of seizures (RR 2.67; 95% CI 0.61 to 11.63) (seven trials involving 444 participants), a non-significant excess of gastrointestinal side effects (RR 1.90; 95% CI 0.94 to 3.85) (14 trials involving 902 participants) and a non-significant excess of bleeding (RR 1.63; 95% CI 0.20 to 13.05) (two trials involving 249 participants) in those allocated SSRIs. Data were not available on quality of life, fatigue or healthcare costs.There was no clear evidence from subgroup analyses that one SSRI was consistently superior to another, or that time since stroke or depression at baseline had a major influence on effect sizes. Sensitivity analyses suggested that effect sizes were smaller when we excluded trials at high or unclear risk of bias.Only eight trials provided data on outcomes after treatment had been completed; the effect sizes were generally in favour of SSRIs but CIs were wide. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: SSRIs appeared to improve dependence, disability, neurological impairment, anxiety and depression after stroke, but there was heterogeneity between trials and methodological limitations in a substantial proportion of the trials. Large, well-designed trials are now needed to determine whether SSRIs should be given routinely to patients with stroke

Placebo effects of caffeine on short-term resistance exercise to failure

Purpose:This study examined the placebo effect of caffeine on number of repetitions (reps), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), blood pressure (BP), and peak heart rate (PHR) during resistance-training exercise with repetitions (reps) performed to volitional failure.Methods:Following determination of 1-rep maximum in single-leg leg extension, 15 males performed reps to failure at 60% 1-RM in 3 conditions: control, perceived caffeine condition, and perceived placebo condition presented in a randomized order. Participants were informed they would ingest 250 mL of solution that contained either 3 mg·kg−1 caffeine or 3 mg·kg−1 placebo 1 h before each exercise trial. A deceptive protocol was employed and subjects consumed a placebo solution in both conditions. During each condition, total reps, RPE for the active muscle and overall body, and PHR were recorded.Results:Subjects completed 2 more reps when they perceived they had ingested caffeine. RPE was significantly (P = .04) lower in the perceived caffeine and control conditions and RPE for the active muscle was significantly higher across all conditions compared with RPE for the overall body. No substantial differences were evident in PHR across conditions.Conclusions:Results of this study are similar to studies of actual caffeine ingestion. However, the perception of consuming a substance that purportedly enhances performance is sufficient enough to enable individuals to complete a greater number of reps to failure during short-term resistance exercise.</jats:sec

Extending the Spectral Difference Method with Divergence Cleaning (SDDC) to the Hall MHD Equations

The Hall Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations are an extension of the standard MHD equations that include the “Hall” term from the general Ohm’s law. The Hall term decouples ion and electron motion physically on the ion inertial length scales. Implementing the Hall MHD equations in a numerical solver allows more physical simulations for plasma dynamics on length scales less than the ion inertial scale length but greater than the electron inertial length. The present effort is an important step towards producing physically correct results to important problems, such as the Geospace Environmental Modeling (GEM) Magnetic Reconnection problem. The solver that is being modified is currently capable of solving the resistive MHD equations on unstructured grids using the spectral difference scheme which is an arbitrarily high-order method that is relatively simple to parallelize. The GEM Magnetic Reconnection problem is used to evaluate whether the Hall MHD equations have been correctly implemented in the solver using the spectral difference method with divergence cleaning (SDDC) algorithm by comparing against the reconnection rates reported in the literature

Numerical simulation of a supercritical inlet flow

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76033/1/AIAA-1985-1214-300.pd

The effect of prolonged exercise and environmental temperature upon left ventricular function and cardiac biomarker release

This thesis examined the effect of single and repeat bouts of prolonged exercise as well as an environmental temperature challenge upon left ventricular (LV) function and cardiac biomarker release. The primary aims were; (1) does repeated exercise bouts mediate a cumulative decrease in LV function and/or increase in cardiac biomarker concentrations; and (2) to examine the impact of prolonged exercise in a hyperthermic environment upon cardiac function and cardiac biomarker levels. Study 1 demonstrated evidence of LV systolic and diastolic dysfunction after exercise that persisted 22 hours into recovery following 10 days of cycling in amateur cyclists. There was however, limited support for a cumulative change in function across days. A highly individual, but not cumulative, pattern of cardiac biomarker appearance was observed with rapid clearance. This data suggests that the cardiovascular system of the amateur cyclists coped well with the accumulated exercise stress imposed by the repeated cycling over 10 days. Study 2 revealed that a single bout of prolonged exercise (37 km), in a hyperthermic environment, resulted in a decrease in LV systolic and diastolic function and an elevation in cardiac biomarkers. There was no evidence of cumulative changes in function or biomarker appearance over a further 5 days of exercise in a hyperthermic environment. Significant individual variation between participant’s responses were again noted. Study 3 employed a controlled exercise stimulus in a laboratory setting and revealed both LV systolic and diastolic function were not significantly altered following 60 minutes of running in either a normothermic (13oC) or hyperthermic (30oC) environment. The release of cardiac biomarkers was limited, with a tendency for markers to be higher in the hyperthemic condition. Participants coped well with the exercise stress, however, the “low” exercise dose in this study likely negates any meaningful impact upon cardiac function and biomarker release. The final study manipulated core temperature (Tc), through pre-cooling, prior to exercise in a hyperthermic environment (32.4 ± 0.9oC and 46.8 ± 6.4% RH). Diastolic, but not systolic, function was reduced following 90 minutes of running, with no difference apparent between pre-cooling and control conditions. cTnT was evident in all participants following both trials, with a limited release of NT-proBNP that was not mediated by pre-cooling. Pre-cooling appeared to have no beneficial or adverse effect on the cardiovascular function and biomarkers that again displayed high inter-individual variability. In conclusion, we observed evidence that acute exercise can result in changes in both cardiac function and biomarkers. There was, however; (1) no evidence of an accumulation of cardiac function or biomarker data across multiple bouts of exercise across a number of days, and (2) limited evidence that either a hyperthermic environment or a pre-cooling intervention altered cardiac function and biomarker data after exercise in a controlled laboratory design. Changes in cardiac function and biomarkers were transient in nature, of relatively small magnitude and subject to high individual variability. It would seem that these changes represent an acute physiologic perturbation as opposed to pathology

Depression as a modifiable factor to decrease the risk of dementia

Depression is an accepted risk factor for dementia, but it is unclear if this relationship is causal. This study investigated whether dementia associated with depression decreases with antidepressant use and is independent of the time between exposure to depression and the onset of dementia. We completed a 14-year longitudinal study of 4922 cognitively healthy men aged 71-89 years, and collected information about history of past depression, current depression and severity of depressive symptoms. Other measures included use of antidepressants, age, education, smoking and history of diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and stroke. The onset of dementia and death during follow-up was ascertained via the Western Australian Data Linkage System. A total of 682 men had past (n = 388) or current (n = 294) depression. During 8.9 years follow-up, 903 (18.3%) developed dementia and 1884 (38.3%) died free of dementia. The sub-hazard ratios (SHRs) of dementia for men with past and current depression were 1.3 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.0, 1.6) and 1.5 (95% CI = 1.2, 2.0). The use of antidepressants did not decrease this risk. Compared to men with no symptoms, the SHRs of dementia associated with questionable, mild-to-moderate and severe depressive symptoms were 1.2 (95% CI = 1.0, 1.4), 1.7 (95% CI = 1.4, 2.2) and 2.1 (95% CI = 1.4, 3.2), respectively. The association between depression and dementia was only apparent during the initial 5 years of follow-up. Older men with history of depression are at increased risk of developing dementia, but depression is more likely to be a marker of incipient dementia than a truly modifiable risk factor

Why lose weight? Reasons for seeking weight loss by overweight but otherwise healthy men

OBJECTIVE: To identify the reasons for seeking weight loss in overweight or obese but otherwise healthy men. DESIGN: Interviews, prior to intervention, with subjects who had volunteered to participate in a work-site-based weight loss study. SUBJECTS: Ninety-one overweight=obese male workers. Mean age 41, range 18 – 55 y, mean body mass index (BMI) 31.0, range 26.2 – 41.6 kg=m2. MEASUREMENTS: Anthropometric measurements; body weight and height. Body mass index calculated. A short interview using open questions to determine the individuals reason for seeking weight loss. RESULTS: The message that weight loss is beneficial to health for the overweight was recognized by all subjects regardless of BMI, and was reported as the main factor for attempting weight loss. Improved fitness and effects on appearance and well-being were reported half as often as the primary reason for weight loss. CONCLUSION: Overweight lay members of the public have accepted the health education message that weight loss can improve health. Overweight but otherwise healthy men who responded, of their own accord, to an electronic mail message offering help to lose weight did not regard obesity and overweight as primarily a cosmetic issue. This is still, however, important, especially to younger people