Not Representing Jesus: Fictional Approximations of Jesus in Contemporary Literature

In this thesis I begin by showing that historical, theological and fictional representations of Jesus are often based on reductive readings of the Gospel narrative and can lead to dogmatic statements about who Jesus was. I argue that some authors of contemporary fiction approach the biblical text in a more imaginative way, and that by misreading the Gospels they are able to approximate the teachings of Jesus, without depending on the creation of explicit Christ-figures. I have called these narratives fictional approximations of Jesus. I use Harold Bloom’s theory of misreading, George Steiner and Valentine Cunningham’s notions of heresy, and Frank Kermode, Geoffrey Hartman, and Terry Wright’s use of Midrash as a way to set out a methodology for reading contemporary fictions by Marilynne Robinson, Denis Johnson, Tim Winton and J. M. Coetzee in conjunction with the Gospel narratives. I show how they misread and rewrite the biblical text, explore the way in which they approximate Jesus’s teachings about forgiveness, love, grace, and hope, and how such misreadings allow for a fresh appreciation of the Bible. In the Introduction I show how Reza Aslan’s Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth is a contemporary example of a reductive way of reading the Gospels and contrast that with the way the fictional approximations of Jesus misread the biblical narrative. In Chapter One I set out in more detail the parameters of the fictional approximation as a method of misreading that moves towards, but never arrives at, a complete identification with the source. In Chapters Two to Five I show how the fictional approximations of Jesus respond to the Gospel narratives by close-reading Robinson’s Gilead and Home, Johnson’s Angels and Jesus’ Son, Winton’s Cloudstreet, and Coetzee’s The Childhood of Jesus in parallel with relevant passages from the Bible

Mixed-metal calix[8]arene complexes: structure, and ring opening polymerisation studies

Reactions of différent combinations of group V alkoxides or tungsten oxyalkoxide salts with p-tert-butylcalix[8]areneH8 (L8H8) affords mixed-metal calix[8]arene systems. Intruiging molecular structures are formed and the systems are capable of the ring opening polymerisation of ϵ-caprolactone under N2, air, or as melts affording mostly low molecular weight products

Heat-dried sclerotia of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum myceliogenically germinate in water and are able to infect Brassica napus

The phytopathogenic fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum forms dormant structures (termed sclerotia) that germinate myceliogenically under certain environmental conditions. During myceliogenic germination, sclerotia produce hyphae, which can infect leaves or stems of host plants directly from the ground; this is termed basal infection. This study determined which abiotic conditions were most important for promoting myceliogenic germination of sclerotia in vitro. A high sclerotium hydration level and low incubation temperature (158C) improved mycelial growth in the presence of a nutrient source. Sclerotia incubated without a nutrient source on moist sand, vigorously myceliogenically germinated most frequently (63%) when they had been previously imbibed and then conditioned at -20°C. By far the most consistent amount of vigorous myceliogenic germination (>75%) was produced when sclerotia were heat-dried before being submerged in water. The hyphae of these sclerotia were shown to infect and proliferate on leaves of intact Brassica napus plants. This research provides a better understanding of the abiotic conditions that are likely to increase the risk of basal infection by S. sclerotiorum

Partial stem resistance in Brassica napus to highly aggressive and genetically diverse Sclerotinia sclerotiorum isolates from Australia

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum is a fungal pathogen that causes stem rot in oilseed rape (Brassica napus). Previously, B. napus accessions with partial stem resistance to a Canadian S. sclerotiorum isolate (#321) were identified using a stem test in which flowering plants were inoculated with mycelium plugs. The present study examined the partial stem resistance of four of these accessions, PAK54, PAK93, DC21 and K22, following inoculation with Australian isolates. Mycelial compatibility groups and intergenic spacer (IGS) region haplotypes were identified among 71 isolates from Australian oilseed rape and lupin fields. Eleven genetically diverse isolates showed differences in aggressiveness when inoculated onto nine oilseed rape varieties and one Chinese accession. Isolates CU8.24, CU10.17 and CU11.19 were selected based on genetic diversity, growth rate in vitro and high aggressiveness in the initial screen and subsequently inoculated onto the four B. napus accessions. These accessions developed significantly smaller lesions compared with the susceptible control varieties (‘AV Garnet’ and ‘Westar’), with the average frequency of soft and collapsed lesions being less than 20% in PAK54, DC21 and K22, 29% in PAK93 and greater than 88% in the susceptible controls. Microscopic examination revealed that hyphae were typically confined to the stem cortex in the smallest lesions, but could be found in the stem pith in larger lesions. These results show that B. napus accessions PAK54, PAK93, DC21 and K22 can be used in Australia for development of varieties with partial stem resistance to S. sclerotiorum

Nonclassical Degrees of Freedom in the Riemann Hamiltonian

The Hilbert-Polya conjecture states that the imaginary parts of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function are eigenvalues of a quantum hamiltonian. If so, conjectures by Katz and Sarnak put this hamiltonian in Altland and Zirnbauer's universality class C. This implies that the system must have a nonclassical two-valued degree of freedom. In such a system, the dominant primitive periodic orbits contribute to the density of states with a phase factor of -1. This resolves a previously mysterious sign problem with the oscillatory contributions to the density of the Riemann zeros.Comment: 4 pages, no figures; v3-6 have minor corrections to v2, v2 has a more complete solution of the sign problem than v

Pillared MOFs: structure and ring opening polymerization of cyclic esters

The solvothermal reaction of Zn(NO3)2·6H2O with 5-aminoisophthalic acid and 4,4′-bipyridyl (4,4′-bipy) led to the self-assembly of the known 3-D hybrid H-bonded/covalent structure {[Zn(5-AIP)(4,4′-bipy)0.5]·DMF}n (1·DMF), but with DMF here (rather than H2O as previously): an analogous reaction using the related 4,4′-azopyridine (4,4′-azopy) in place of 4,4′-bipyridyl afforded the structurally related framework {[Zn(5-AIP)(4,4′-azopy)0.5]·0.75DMF}n (2·0.75DMF). Similar solvothermal reactions of Co(NO3)·6H2O, Mn(NO3)·4H2O and Cd(NO3)·4H2O with 5-aminoisophthalate and the potential linkers 4,4′-bipy, 2-di(4-pyridyl)ethylene (DPE), and 4,4′-azopy afforded the porous 3-D structures {[Co2(NO3)2(5-AIP)(4,4′-bipy)2]·2EtOH}n (3·2EtOH), {[Co(5-AIP)(DPE)]·2DMF}n (4·2DMF), {[Co(5-AIP)(4,4′-azopy)]·2DMA}n (5·2DMA), {[Mn(5-AIP)(4,4′-bipy)]·2DMA}n (6·2DMA), {[Mn(5-AIP)(DPE)]·6DMF}n (7·6DMF), {[Mn(5-AIP)(4,4′-azopy)]·2.5DMF}n (8·2.5DMF), the previously reported {[Cd(5-AIP)(4,4′-bipy)]·3DMF}n (9·3DMF), {[Cd(5-AIP)(DPE)]·DMF}n (10), and {Cd(5-AIP)(4,4′-azopy)(DMF)}n (11), with structures 4-10 bearing the same network topologies with metal atoms and 5-AIP ligands in sheets, bipy ligands acting as pillars, and solvent molecules of crystallisation located around the bipy ligands. The activated MOFs were employed as catalysts for the ring opening polymerization (ROP) of ϵ-caprolactone and δ-valerolactone. ROPs were conducted as melts, and under N2 only 1 with δ-VL (∼93% conversion) was active. In the case of ϵ-CL under air, all the systems were active with 1, 2, and 11 affording >90% conversion. Molecular weights (Mn) were in the range 3760-17 940 Da and the products formed were identified as both cyclic and linear PCL. For δ-VL, the catalysts performed somewhat better, with all systems (except 8) affording ∼90% conversion or more under air. Molecular weights (Mn) were in the range 2180-7940 and as for PCL, the products formed were identified as both cyclic and linear PCL

The Berry-Keating Hamiltonian and the Local Riemann Hypothesis

The local Riemann hypothesis states that the zeros of the Mellin transform of a harmonic-oscillator eigenfunction (on a real or p-adic configuration space) have real part 1/2. For the real case, we show that the imaginary parts of these zeros are the eigenvalues of the Berry-Keating hamiltonian H=(xp+px)/2 projected onto the subspace of oscillator eigenfunctions of lower level. This gives a spectral proof of the local Riemann hypothesis for the reals, in the spirit of the Hilbert-Polya conjecture. The p-adic case is also discussed.Comment: 9 pages, no figures; v2 included more mathematical background, v3 has minor edits for clarit

Phosphopantetheinyl transferase (Ppt)-mediated biosynthesis of lysine, but not siderophores or DHN melanin, is required for virulence of Zymoseptoria tritici on wheat

Zymoseptoria tritici is the causal agent of Septoria tritici blotch (STB) disease of wheat. Z. tritici is an apoplastic fungal pathogen, which does not penetrate plant cells at any stage of infection, and has a long initial period of symptomless leaf colonisation. During this phase it is unclear to what extent the fungus can access host plant nutrients or communicate with plant cells. Several important primary and secondary metabolite pathways in fungi are regulated by the post-translational activator phosphopantetheinyl transferase (Ppt) which provides an essential co-factor for lysine biosynthesis and the activities of non-ribosomal peptide synthases (NRPS) and polyketide synthases (PKS). To investigate the relative importance of lysine biosynthesis, NRPS-based siderophore production and PKS-based DHN melanin biosynthesis, we generated deletion mutants of ZtPpt. The ?ZtPpt strains were auxotrophic for lysine and iron, non-melanised and non-pathogenic on wheat. Deletion of the three target genes likely affected by ZtPpt loss of function (Aar- lysine; Nrps1-siderophore and Pks1- melanin), highlighted that lysine auxotrophy was the main contributing factor for loss of virulence, with no reduction caused by loss of siderophore production or melanisation. This reveals Ppt, and the lysine biosynthesis pathway, as potential targets for fungicides effective against Z. tritici