The Art of Flowers, Silks, and Stones: Ekphrastic Literary Fashioning in Floire et Blancheflor and its Receptions in Later French and Italian Medieval Literature

This study of Robert d’Orbigny’s Old French ‘aristocratique’ Li Conte de Floire et Blancheflor (c. 1170) and its receptions in Guillaume de Lorris’ first part of Le Roman de la Rose (c. 1230), and Giovanni Boccaccio’s later Italian version of the story, Il Filocolo (1335 – 1336), seeks to reassess Floire et Blancheflor in the light of current scholarly discourses concerning, among other things, ekphrasis and medieval conceptions of nature, recognising it as a work of exceptional ekphrastic and self-reflexive richness interested above all else in its own artefactuality. An argument is presented that Robert d’Orbigny’s poem is chiefly concerned with presenting a vivid series of hyper-realistic artefacts, including (both actual and artificial) flowers, silks, and stones, that repeatedly blur the boundaries between art and nature and in doing so contribute to the construction of a sophisticated dialogue about poetic composition. Later chapters examine the reappearance and refashioning of many of the same ekphrastically treated artefacts that characterise and form the subject of Floire et Blancheflor within the Roman de la Rose and the Filocolo, where they become thresholds into other spaces – sites of intertextual exchange and transportation

Race, ethnicity and culture: What happens to these contexts when Family Therapists work with childhood eating disorders?

Race, ethnicity and culture (REC) influence the meaning of food and eating. This research examines how attention and reflexivity of family therapists towards REC are influenced by the NICE guidelines (manualised, family-based treatment- FBT) when working in childhood eating disorders services. The guidelines position clinicians to focus on psycho-education and weight gain. Hence, the opportunity to reflect on differences and similarities when meeting families is often deemed unnecessary in the initial phase of treatment. This sets up a dilemma between saving life and being reflexive. The study employs a qualitative, exploratory, multi-method approach based on online, semi-structured interviews with six individuals and two small focus groups of family therapists. Narrative Analysis (Dialogical/ Performance Analysis) was used to interpret the data from which structure, themes, identities, and contexts were drawn to address the research questions. The analysis illuminated the participants’ internal contexts and their connections with cultural practice. It also highlighted their external contexts such as team dynamics, FBT adherence, cost and efficiency. Wider societal influences were identified: the control of bodies, food and eating; the conceptualisation of risk and blame in modern society and in the NHS. Some unexpected narratives were elicited which showed the complexity of racism and the challenges present when addressing race, ethnicity and culture in this clinical context. My findings show that the degree of adherence to FBT by family therapists, depends on their personal experience, resonance to emotional distress, confidence, team priority and team support. Some participants demonstrated that therapists can save lives and be reflexive. Those who did not adapt FBT prefer the authority and certainty of the medical discourse. Nevertheless, as a systemic therapist, I believe FBT would benefit from adaptation in order for attention to reflexivity and inclusion of REC to be encouraged throughout the treatment process

Race, Ethnicity and Culture: what happens to these contexts when Family Therapists work with Childhood Eating Disorders?

Race, ethnicity and culture (REC) influence the meaning of food and eating. This research examines how attention and reflexivity of family therapists towards REC are influenced by the NICE guidelines (manualised, family-based treatment- FBT) when working in childhood eating disorders services. The guidelines position clinicians to focus on psycho-education and weight gain. Hence, the opportunity to reflect on differences and similarities when meeting families is often deemed unnecessary in the initial phase of treatment. This sets up a dilemma between saving life and being reflexive. The study employs a qualitative, exploratory, multi-method approach based on online, semi-structured interviews with six individuals and two small focus groups of family therapists. Narrative Analysis (Dialogical/ Performance Analysis) was used to interpret the data from which structure, themes, identities, and contexts were drawn to address the research questions. The analysis illuminated the participants’ internal contexts and their connections with cultural practice. It also highlighted their external contexts such as team dynamics, FBT adherence, cost and efficiency. Wider societal influences were identified: the control of bodies, food and eating; the conceptualisation of risk and blame in modern society and in the NHS. Some unexpected narratives were elicited which showed the complexity of racism and the challenges present when addressing race, ethnicity and culture in this clinical context. My findings show that the degree of adherence to FBT by family therapists, depends on their personal experience, resonance to emotional distress, confidence, team priority and team support. Some participants demonstrated that therapists can save lives and be reflexive. Those who did not adapt FBT prefer the authority and certainty of the medical discourse. Nevertheless, as a systemic therapist, I believe FBT would benefit from adaptation in order for attention to reflexivity and inclusion of REC to be encouraged throughout the treatment process

Collaborative Options to Improve Drinking Water Quality in Western Boxborough, MA

Stakeholders in western Boxborough, Massachusetts face serious water quality challenges due to drinking water contamination from road salt and wastewater discharge. The MassDEP and MassDOT are seeking a collaborative water solution to address these concerns. The goals of this project were to help research possible solutions and create public outreach materials for affected stakeholders to explain possible courses of action and facilitate collaboration. Collaborating with the town of Littleton to drill a new well and extend their water system into Boxborough was identified as most feasible. The project resulted in framework for stakeholders to continue to work towards finalizing a plan for collaborating with Littleton to help remediate water issues

Stability, resistance and change in mammalian microbiota and their associations with host health

What is the nature of a complex organism? Metagenomic research and its insights into biosystem function have fundamentally altered the answer to this question. High- throughput sequencing technology has revealed the multitude of microbes that live in and on human beings and other mammals. Metagenomics is beginning to uncover the relationships between microbiome and host that contribute to a complex organism’s biological processes. The vast quantities of data generated by sequencing have also created analytical challenges that require new methods to identify biologically meaningful results. The research described in this dissertation applies many of these techniques to elucidate the role of microbiota in human health. Chapter 1 presents results from our study of human choline metabolism that identified a relationship between the human gut microbiome and health. Primer design and qPCR experiments that confirm Chapter 1 results are explained in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 characterizes the microbial community from cystic fibrosis lung infection exposed to repeated courses of antibiotic therapy. An experiment designed to improve the resolution of ARISA, a metagenomic profiling technique, is described in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5, the relationship between gut microbial community composition and exercise in mice is investigated. In total, the work in this dissertation identifies several novel relationships between microbiota, host and environmental factors that may prove important in identifying underlying biological mechanisms that will improve human health

Manipulating prohibitin levels provides evidence for an in vivo role in androgen regulation of prostate tumours

Current hormonal therapies for prostate cancer are effective initially, but inevitably tumours progress to an advanced, metastatic stage, often referred to as ‘androgen independent’. However, the androgen receptor (AR) signalling pathway is still key for their growth. It is speculated that tumours escape hormonal control via reduction in corepressor proteins. Manipulating such proteins is thus a potential therapeutic strategy to halt or even reverse tumour progression. We aimed to elucidate the effects of altering levels of the AR corepressor and androgen-target protein prohibitin (PHB) on prostate tumour growth. Prostate cancer cells incorporating an integrated androgen-responsive reporter gene and stably expressing vectors to inducibly overexpress or knockdown PHB were generated and used to assess effects on androgen signalling (by real time imaging) and tumour growth both in culture and in vivo. PHB overexpression inhibited AR activity and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) expression as well as androgen-dependent growth of cells, inducing rapid accumulation in G0/G1. Conversely, reduction in PHB increased AR activity, PSA expression, androgen-mediated growth and S-phase entry. In vivo, doxycycline-induced PHB regulation resulted in marked changes in AR activity, and showed significant effects upon tumour growth. Overexpression led to tumour growth arrest and protection from hormonal starvation, whereas RNAi knockdown resulted in accelerated tumour growth, even in castrated mice. This study provides proof of principle that i) reduction in PHB promotes both androgen-dependent and ‘androgen-independent’ tumour growth, and ii) altering AR activity via increasing levels or activity of corepressors is a valid therapeutic strategy for advanced prostate cancer

Social-Media-Algorithmen als Gefahr für Öffentlichkeit und Demokratie: Anwendungen, Risikoassemblagen und Verantwortungszuschreibungen

Der Beitrag beschreibt die Einsatzbereiche von Algorithmen auf Social-Media-Plattformen sowie die Risiken für Öffentlichkeit und Demokratie. Dabei wird herausgearbeitet, dass Algorithmen aus unterschiedlichen Gründen zur Entstehung einzelner Risiken beitragen, z.B. durch Fehlerhaftigkeit, Verstärkungseffekte, Manipulation, als Opportunitätsstruktur für gefährliche Praktiken und als Faktor für die Etablierung von Machtasymmetrien. Meist lassen sich Risiken jedoch nicht ausschließlich auf den Einsatz von Algorithmen zurückführen, sondern auf ein Zu-sammenwirken verschiedener Einflussfaktoren wie regulatorische Rahmenbedingungen, Geschäftsinteressen der Plattformbetreiber, Plattformdesign und Nutzungsverhalten. Entsprechend lassen sich Risiken algorithmischer Selektion auf Internet-Plattformen am besten als „sozio-technische Assemblagen“ beschreiben, um involvierte Akteur*innen, Technologien und vielfältige Wirkungszusammenhänge angemessen zu erfassen. Eine solche Beschreibung wiederum eröffnet Perspektiven für Fragen nach der Verantwortlichkeit für Risiken, die im Zusammenspiel von Menschen und Technik entstehen und sie ermöglicht eine Differenzierung der Zurech-nungspunkte für Verantwortlichkeit (Plattformunternehmen, Entwickler*innen, Nut-zer*innen, Politik/Regulierung, etc.), die gemeinsam ein Verantwortungsnetzwerk bilden