\u27Our glory and our grief\u27: Toronto and the Great War (Ontario)

This dissertation studies the impact of the Great War on Toronto, Ontario. What happened in the city? How were the enormous sacrifices of the war rationalized? Why did English-Canadians support it? What did citizens know about the war? The dissertation draws upon a wide and varied source base. Every issue of the following newspapers was examined: the six Toronto daily papers, The Weekly Sun, Maclean\u27s, The Industrial Banner, Everywoman\u27s World, The Labour Gazette, and the religious periodicals of major religious denominations in the city. In addition, extensive searches were conducted in the City of Toronto Archives, the Archives of Ontario, the Public Archives of Canada, Baldwin Reading Room, Directorate of History, University of Toronto Archives and Thomas Fisher Rare Book Room, and related church archives. Using these public and private sources, a complex portrait of wartime life has been drawn detailing what residents knew, and how they behaved. The narrative is informed by social, cultural, military, labour, and women\u27s historiographies. Throughout the war, English-Canadian Torontonians reacted in a manner which was both informed and committed. Initially, they expected the war would be short. However, when military events demonstrated that an ad hoc, voluntary approach would be insufficient to meet the increasing demands of the war, they adapted. Voluntary organizations gradually gave way to popularly sanctioned government involvement in everything from the financing to the supplying of men for the war. This was a community which was firmly dedicated to winning the war. Despite its enormous cost, citizens endured

Metformin reverses development of pulmonary hypertension via aromatase inhibition

Females are more susceptible to pulmonary arterial hypertension than males, although the reasons remain unclear. The hypoglycemic drug, metformin, is reported to have multiple actions, including the inhibition of aromatase and stimulation of AMP-activated protein kinase. Inhibition of aromatase using anastrazole is protective in experimental pulmonary hypertension but whether metformin attenuates pulmonary hypertension through this mechanism remains unknown. We investigated whether metformin affected aromatase activity and if it could reduce the development of pulmonary hypertension in the sugen 5416/hypoxic rat model. We also investigated its influence on proliferation in human pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells. Metformin reversed right ventricular systolic pressure, right ventricular hypertrophy, and decreased pulmonary vascular remodeling in the rat. Furthermore, metformin increased rat lung AMP-activated protein kinase signaling, decreased lung and circulating estrogen levels, levels of aromatase, the estrogen metabolizing enzyme; cytochrome P450 1B1 and its transcription factor; the aryl hydrocarbon receptor. In human pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells, metformin decreased proliferation and decreased estrogen synthesis by decreasing aromatase activity through the PII promoter site of Cyp19a1. Thus, we report for the first time that metformin can reverse pulmonary hypertension through inhibition of aromatase and estrogen synthesis in a manner likely to be mediated by AMP-activated protein kinase

Quantifying bacterial transfer from patients to staff during burns dressing and bed changes : implications for infection control

Routine nursing activities such as dressing/bed changes increase bacterial dispersal from burns patients, potentially contaminating healthcare workers (HCW) carrying out these tasks. HCW thus become vectors for transmission of nosocomial infection between patients. The suspected relationship between %total body surface area (%TBSA) of burn and levels of bacterial release has never been fully established. Bacterial contamination of HCW was assessed by contact plate samples (n = 20) from initially sterile gowns worn by the HCW during burns patient dressing/bed changes. Analysis of 24 gowns was undertaken and examined for relationships between %TBSA, time taken for activity, and contamination received by the HCW. Relationships between size of burn and levels of HCW contamination, and time taken for the dressing/bed change and levels of HCW contamination were best described by exponential models. Burn size correlated more strongly (R2 = 0.82, p < 0.001) than time taken (R2 = 0.52, p < 0.001), with levels of contamination received by the HCW. Contamination doubled with every 6–9% TBSA increase in burn size. Burn size was used to create a model to predict bacterial contamination received by a HCW carrying out bed/dressing changes. This may help with the creation of burn-specific guidelines on protective clothing worn by HCW caring for burns patients

Philosophie et interprétation des textes à l’époque des confessions (1560-1630)

Quarante ans après les événements de Wittenberg de 1517, le processus que Wolfgang Reinhard et Heinz Schilling ont qualifié de « confessionnalisation » s’amorce avec le Concile de Trente, les articles de foi de l’Église anglicane, la « confessio helvetica », la « formule de concorde » luthérienne : tous signes d’une volonté de mettre l’accent (…

The rural entrepreneurs: A history of the stock and station agent industry in Australia and New Zealand.

The “agent” is almost as emblematic of Australasian farming as akubra hats, water tanks, and windmills. The agent was an employee of “stock and station” firms, who provided farmers with a range of purchased inputs and other goods and services, and assisted with the marketing of their products. As the name implies, they originated in the mid-nineteenth century to serve the needs of pioneer sheep “stations.” The firms later expanded their activities, partly in response to the farms themselves becoming multiproduct enterprises (combining wool with meat, wheat, and other grain crops), and partly to pursue full-line diversification. Having established a network of contacts with farmers through local agents in relation to the wool trade, a distribution system was in place to reap economies of scale or scope by catering to farmers' other needs such as finance, machinery, management advice, the sale or purchase of land and livestock, travel services, etc.Ian Maclea

Corps et âme selon les médecins et les théologiens du xvie siècle : le conflit des facultés

Depuis le xiiie siècle, la théologie revendique le droit d’imposer aux autres facultés certaines doctrines, dont celles qui concernent la relation du corps et de l’âme et l’immortalité de cette dernière, et de leur en défendre d’autres, dont celle de la « double vérité » et celle de l’unicité de l’intellect. Ces interdictions donnent lieu à leur tour à plusieurs stratégies qui rendent possible l’entretien avec la philosophie grecque et arabe, comme la pratique de naturalibus naturaliter prôné..

Transient but not genetic loss of miR-451 attenuates the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension

&lt;b&gt;Rationale:&lt;/b&gt; MicroRNAs are small non-coding RNAs involved in the regulation of gene expression and have recently been implicated in the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Previous work established that miR-451 is up-regulated in rodent models of PAH.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Objectives:&lt;/b&gt; The role of miR-451 in the pulmonary circulation is unknown. We therefore sought to assess the involvement of miR-451 in the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Methods:&lt;/b&gt; Silencing of miR-451 was performed in vivo using miR-451 knockout mice and an antimiR targeting mature miR-451 in rats. Coupled with exposure to hypoxia, indices of pulmonary arterial hypertension were assessed. The effect of modulating miR-451 on human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration was analysed.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Measurements and Main Results:&lt;/b&gt; We observed a reduction in systolic right ventricular pressure in hypoxic rats pre-treated with antimiR-451 compared to hypoxia alone (47.7 ± 1.36mmHg and 56.0 ± 2.03mmHg respectively, p&#60;0.01). In miR-451 knockout mice following exposure to chronic hypoxia, no significant differences were observed compared to wild type hypoxic mice. In vitro analysis demonstrated that over-expression of miR-451 in human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells promoted migration under serum-free conditions. No effect on cellular proliferation was observed.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;b&gt;Conclusions:&lt;/b&gt; Transient inhibition of miR-451 attenuated the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension in hypoxia exposed rats. Genetic deletion of miR-451 had no beneficial effect on indices of pulmonary arterial hypertension, potentially due to pathway redundancy compensating for the loss of miR-451.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt

External Conditions, Internal Rationality: Spinoza on the Rationality of Suicide

I argue alongside some other scholars that there is a plausible reading of Spinoza’s philosophy of suicide which holds both of the following tenets: first, that suicides occur because of external conditions, and second, that there are at least some suicides which are rational. These two tenets require special attention because they seem to be the source of significant tension. For Spinoza, if one’s cognitions are to be the most adequate, they must be “disposed internally” (E2p29s/G II 114), or determined more from one’s own mental nature than from “fortuitous encounters” with other things (E2p29s/G II 114). It may seem there is a conflict, then, in saying both that there are rational suicides in the Spinozist framework, and that suicides must always be a result of external conditions: it seems a suicide simply cannot be rational if it is the result of external conditions. But this tension, it will be shown, can be dissolved. Once this tension is dealt with, I offer some brief closing arguments. I explain how this reading of Spinoza’s philosophy of suicide can satisfy a call for new suicide research which avoids forms of over-individualism and epistemic injustice, and which encourages us to abolish oppressive conditions that lead to rational suicides

External Conditions, Internal Rationality: Spinoza on the Rationality of Suicide

I argue alongside some other scholars that there is a plausible reading of Spinoza’s philosophy of suicide which holds both of the following tenets: first, that suicides occur because of external conditions, and second, that there are at least some suicides which are rational. These two tenets require special attention because they seem to be the source of significant tension. For Spinoza, if one’s cognitions are to be the most adequate, they must be “disposed internally” (E2p29s/G II 114), or determined more from one’s own mental nature than from “fortuitous encounters” with other things (E2p29s/G II 114). It may seem there is a conflict, then, in saying both that there are rational suicides in the Spinozist framework, and that suicides must always be a result of external conditions: it seems a suicide simply cannot be rational if it is the result of external conditions. But this tension, it will be shown, can be dissolved. Once this tension is dealt with, I offer some brief closing arguments. I explain how this reading of Spinoza’s philosophy of suicide can satisfy a call for new suicide research which avoids forms of over-individualism and epistemic injustice, and which encourages us to abolish oppressive conditions that lead to rational suicides