Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Destining'

This thesis examines the juncture between the short story cycle form and gender politics. It explores how twentieth-century women from the United States have been using the form to represent and question gender identity. The introduction outlines commentaries on the story cycle and considers definitions of the form. It includes case studies of earlier twentieth-century cycles by American women: cycles such as Mary McCarthy's The Company She Keeps that have been passed over by critics of the form. Chapter One presents Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples as a cycle paradigm, examining conventions such as the form's metafictional dimension and its preoccupation with communal identity. Chapter Two argues that Grace Paley's scattered Faith narratives set a standard for more dispersed versions of the form. Chapter Three considers how Joyce Carol Oates uses the sequential cycle to represent gender identity as a social construct. Chapters Four and Five examine the macrocosmic cycles of Gloria Naylor and Louise Erdrich and consider changes in their form and gender politics. The final `composite' chapters explore postmodern versions of the form such as Susan Minot's Monkeys. The prose works of Sandra Cisneros stretch across the story cycle continuum, whilst Toni Morrison's Paradise is universally regarded as a novel. Readings of contemporary cycles by Melissa Bank, Elissa Schappell and Emily Carter demonstrate that American women are re-invigorating the form to facilitate the plural identity of the postmodern heroine.

The Indigenous people in Australia are the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Since colonisation in 1788 this population has diminished significantly. Following years of advocacy addressing inequitable government policies towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, the first Aboriginal Medical Service was established in Redfern, New South Wales, in 1971. From this one Aboriginal Medical Service there grew many more across Australia; in some jurisdictions they are referred to as Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHS). This study was designed to examine the bureaucratic and organisational structures, functions and operations of these ACCHS, and how these services meet both the organisation’s requirements and the community’s expectations when delivering a culturally-appropriate health service to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This research applies a case study method within a qualitative paradigm for the depth needed to explore the research aims. Following discussions with the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council, the sites for this research were identified in central and southern Queensland. The three sites were vastly separated by distance but at the same time subjected to similar historical abuse. The participants drawn from these sites were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and the research attempted to capture their perceptions. Each case was subjected to a conceptual and thematic analysis to draw out the key themes and concepts and thence to develop a theoretical model of how the ACCHS balance their organisational requirements and community expectations.<br>Thesis (PhD Doctorate)<br>Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)<br>School of Medical Science<br>Griffith Health<br>Full Text

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2003.<br>Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-145).<br>Cities grow and with it urban form, unique to each, keeps evolving. Delhi can be perceived as having a poly centric, poly-nodal, radial city structure and a circumferential and partly sectoral form. World over, cities have evolved from a complex relationship between numerous influencing factors. It can be argued that in present times, transport and technology are the two significant pre-cursors of change. The next decade in India is going to see massive interventions in urban areas with regard to infrastructure, especially those related to transportation. The city of Delhi is an appropriate case to examine in this regard as currently a mass rapid transport system is being introduced in the city. Delhi is a unique city as it is probably the only capital city in the world both in terms of its physical size and population it serves that relies only on buses for public transport. It is also a city which has grown rapidly post independence failing any formal planning interventions proposed by the subsequent master plans for its containment. The introduction of the new transit system being one of the biggest financial investments in the city post independence is seen as an opportunity to restructure the city to accommodate an increase in population of 10 million people and also to define future urbanization trends in the region. This thesis is an inquiry aimed at understanding as to how the advent of mass transit can be utilized by a city like Delhi to limit its sprawl and address changes in land use patterns. A comparative study of other world city regions encourages one to think that intensifying development along transit corridors and at nodes is one option which could lead to a more efficient distribution of people in the city of Delhi. The thesis also questions the nature of present planning framework for the city and suggests appropriate planning and policy adjustments to complement the pattern of development proposed in context with the opportunities presented by the advent of the new mass transit system.<br>by Saurabh Bagley.<br>S.M.

La tesi si propone di affrontare il modo in cui il romanzo storico degli anni Zero rappresenta il rapporto fra il singolo individuo e la collettività. Il lavoro è suddiviso in tre parti, le prime due di natura teorica e la terza dedicata all’analisi puntuale di tre romanzi. La prima parte è dedicata al tema dei Memory Studies e ripercorre i passi che hanno portato alla definizione di questo campo di studi. La scelta di approfondire questo tema nasce dalla valutazione dell’importanza della memoria nella formazione identitaria, tanto dei singoli quanto delle comunità. Partendo dal fondamentale lavoro di Maurice Halbwachs sulla memoria collettiva (1927), la tesi segue gli sviluppi della teoria che hanno portato, negli anni ’80 del Novecento, al cosiddetto memory boom. La seconda parte è dedicata all’analisi di alcune delle caratteristiche principali del romanzo storico del Terzo Millennio. Nel contesto della critica letteraria e della narrativa degli anni Zero si osserva la tendenza degli autori a prediligere storie che affrontano le possibili declinazioni del rapporto fra singolo e società con narrazioni inscrivibili nell’alveo della microstoria (Carlo Ginzburg, 1976) e della controstoria, intesa qui come prospettiva controegemonica che si oppone al discorso ufficiale. La volontà di recuperare la componente politica del genere storico emerge attraverso la ri-discussione e la ri-problematizzazione del rapporto con il passato, soprattutto quello traumatico del Novecento. Lo stato attuale di questa relazione fra la Storia e l’Oggi, e fra singolo e collettività, è discusso attraverso una riflessione generata dal saggio di Guido Mazzoni I Destini Generali (2015). Nella seconda parte del capitolo, per meglio contestualizzare le strategie narrative che oggi si vedono messe in atto all’interno del genere, se ne traccia una rapida genealogia soffermandosi in particolare sull’Historiographic Metafiction (Linda Hutcheon, 1988) e il Metahistorical Romance (Amy Elias, 2001). Partendo dalla ripresa della teoria di Hayden White (Metahistory, 1973), si prende in considerazione anche la scuola critica del New Historicism (Stephen Greenblatt, Catherine Gallagher, Practicing New Historicism, 2000). Il romanzo storico nella sua manifestazione più contemporanea tende a virare sempre più sul versante della realtà limitando al massimo l’influenza della finzione: in questa direzione vanno testi che si giocano sulla continua elisione della separazione fra il piano finzionale e quello fattuale, come dimostra il fiorire di forme ibride come docu-drama, meta-fiction storica, fact-fiction. Fra le strategie narrative più utilizzate nel romanzo storico del Terzo Millennio ci sono quelle che riguardano l’uso della voce (in particolare, si nota come sia frequentissimo il ricorso agli stilemi dell’autofinzione). Un altro aspetto esaminato perché ritenuto interessante è il rapporto fra romanzo storico e romanzo familiare. La terza e ultima parte della tesi è dedicata all’approfondimento di tre romanzi: El Monarca de las Sombras di Javier Cercas (2017), Le rondini di Montecassino di Helena Janeczek (2010), e 4321 di Paul Auster (2017). I testi sono letti da una prospettiva orientata ad evidenziare come gli autori mettano in comunicazione la Storia con l’Oggi e i destini individuali con quelli collettivi. Come illustrato nella tesi, ho deciso di lavorare sul romanzo storico nella convinzione che in questa forma narrativa si concentrino alcuni dei nodi concettuali più stringenti emersi nel dibattito contemporaneo. L’ipotesi formulata in apertura del lavoro è che i romanzi storici del Terzo Millennio tendano verso la riscoperta di un impegno etico e morale della letteratura, espresso da testi costruiti attorno a domande ricorrenti quali ad esempio, “cos’avrei fatto io al loro posto?” e “qual è il mio posto nella Storia?”<br>The thesis aims to address the way in which historical novels written in the 2000s stage the relationship between individual stories and collective destinies. The work is divided into three parts, the first two are concerned with theory and the third is dedicated to the analysis of three novels. The first part addresses the issue of Memory Studies and traces the steps that lead to the definition of this field of study. I choose to tackle this issue because of the paramount relevance accorded to memory in the construction of identity, both individual and collective. Maurice Halbwachs’ work on collective memory, L’Histoire Collective (1925), marks the beginning for the development of the studies that lead to the so-called memory boom in the ‘80s. The second part of the thesis deals with literature and analyzes some of the most prominent aspects of the contemporary historical novel as a genre. The first half of the examination opens remarking how authors of historical novels seem to focus their attention on how individuals interact with collective groups. Remarkably, most historical novels seem to deal with narratives related to microhistory (Carlo Ginzburg, 1976) and counterhistory. . In order to outline the status of the link between individual stories and collective destinies I discuss the essay I Destini Generali (2015) by Guido Mazzoni. The second half of the chapter is devoted to draw a brief genealogy of the historical novel genre in its most recent years. Linda Hucheon’s Historiographic Metafiction (1988) and Amy Elias’ Metahistorical Romance are shortly discussed, along with Stephen Greenblatt’s New Historicism (Greenblatt, Cathrine Gallagher, Practicing New Historicism, 2000), a school born out of Hayden White’s Metahistory (1973). From Greenblatt’s interpretation of the work of Clifford Geertz (The Interpretation of Culture, 1973) many authors have derived a vision of historical fiction as a means of “communication with the dead”, a sort of necromancy which seem to imbue many of the narratives that are concerned with history in the last twenty years, aimed at reinstating a connection between the present and the past. The authors employ archive documents and family album photos to support their narratives, therefore raising the issue of the distinction between fact and fiction and between factual and fictional narratives. The contemporary historical novel seems to be marking a sharp turn toward factual or nonfictional narratives, thus creating space for hybrid forms like docu-drama, metafiction and fact-fiction where the two dimensions fruitfully interact with each other. One of the most prominent features in the genre is the modulation of the narrator’s voice. To address this issue directly I chose to consider two novels namely Jonathan Littell’s Les Bienveillantes (2006) and Filippo Tuena’s Le Variazioni Reinach (2005/2015). Another issue which I put under scrutigny is the relationship between family novel and historical novel. Both genres appear to be in a renaissance phase, gaining praise from audience and literary critics alike. Also, both genres deal with the problem of how to relate with the past; finally, both imply the use of similar stylistic features such as autofiction or characters tracing down long-lost relatives using archive information. The last part of the work focuses on the analysis of three novels, namely El Monarca de las Sombras by Javier Cercas (2017), Le rondini di Montecassino by Helena Janeczek (2010) and 4321 by Paul Auster (2017) and highlights how the authors have put in place narrative strategies designed to create a link between history and the present by connecting individual stories and collective destinies. In my work historical novel as a genre is shown as moving toward a more engaged relationship with the public sphere by helping raise moral questions that compel the reader to reflect on her possibility to act in the real world.

This thesis focuses on the significance and articulation of divinatory practices in Cuba a place where a number of different religious traditions (mainly of African and European origins) have come to coexist. Reflecting on the particularities of my ethnography, I concentrate on three such traditions: Ocha/Ifá, Palo Monte and Espiritismo. However, rather than engaging with them as different ‘traditions’ or assuming their syncretic character, I attempt to explore the way in which they constitute distinct but related perspectives on human destiny or, as my friends and informants put it, on people’s ‘path’ (camino) perspectives, that is, which continuously constitute and recalibrate each other. Echoing the work of authors such as Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, I try to illustrate the nature of these perspectives by bringing to the fore the ways in which different divinatory practices instantiate and embody the efficacy or ‘point of view’ of different ‘other-than-human’ beings be they deities or the dead. Thus, while in the case of Ocha/Ifá and its oracles, I concentrate on the relation between ‘humans’ and the orichas (deities), my discussion of divinatory practices within Palo Monte and Espiritismo places the emphasis on the relation between ‘humans’ and various kinds of the dead (muertos). Treating these relations as an exchange of perspectives between ‘humans’ and ‘other-than-human’ entities, I argue for the need to focus on ‘ontology’ and the indigenous understanding of these entities’ ‘nature’ in order to avoid both ‘reductionist’ and ‘constructivist’ renderings of divination; in other words, to avoid the theoretical limits of ‘syncretic’ or ‘purist’ readings of the (Afro-)Cuban spirit world and its efficacy. This emphasis on ‘ontology’ leads me to construe divination as ‘perspectivism’ and to treat it as both a theoretical strategy and an ethnographic challenge.

Nel presente lavoro vengono suggerite nuove strategie di lettura per un’opera che costituisce un unicum, non solo nella produzione narrativa di Italo Calvino, ma certamente anche nella storia letteraria del Novecento. Il castello dei destini incrociati (1973) viene interpretato in senso cartografico, come il tentativo di mappare un mondo labirintico, dai significati inesauribili e comunque destinato a farsi inghiottire dal gorgo della modernità. Pur conservando i tratti del romanzo enciclopedico, viene messo in luce come il Castello si sottragga al desiderio di rappresentare la totalità, scegliendo piuttosto la strada del potenziale e della metamorfosi, nel tentativo di individuare i fattori primi di ogni storia narrabile. Un po’ torre di Babele e un po’ arca dell’alleanza, emerge nel lavoro come il libro nasca dal bisogno di verificare le ragioni della letteratura e di rivisitare il ruolo dell’intellettuale: sul finire degli anni sessanta, Calvino allestisce in chiave allegorica e figurale un’allarmata riflessione sulla convivenza, profetizzando l’apocalisse di un mondo che è chiamato a recuperare l’antica fiducia nella progettazione e nell’utopia.<br>This work suggests new reading strategies for a novel that represents a singular event, not only in Italo Calvino’s narrative production, but also in the history of Nineteenth-Century literature. The Castle of Crossed Destinies (1973) is approached in a cartographical way, as an attempt to give the map of a labyrinthine world, complicated by inexhaustible meanings and, in any case, destined to be swallowed by Modernity’s wheel. Though conserving the features of the encyclopaedic novel, the Castle is shown as a book that tries to dodge the desire to represent the world as a whole, as a totality: on the contrary, it chooses to go through the paths of potentiality and metamorphosis, seeking the prime factors of every possible story. The Castle is a sort of Tower of Babel, an Ark of the Covenant: Savio’s thesis underlines that this novel grows out of the need to check the reasons of literature and to rethink the role of intellectuals: in the end of the Sixties, allegorically and figurally, Calvino sets up an alarmed reflection about the coexistence of mankind, foretelling the apocalypse of a world that is called to rescue its old faith in planning and utopia.

Nel presente lavoro vengono suggerite nuove strategie di lettura per un’opera che costituisce un unicum, non solo nella produzione narrativa di Italo Calvino, ma certamente anche nella storia letteraria del Novecento. Il castello dei destini incrociati (1973) viene interpretato in senso cartografico, come il tentativo di mappare un mondo labirintico, dai significati inesauribili e comunque destinato a farsi inghiottire dal gorgo della modernità. Pur conservando i tratti del romanzo enciclopedico, viene messo in luce come il Castello si sottragga al desiderio di rappresentare la totalità, scegliendo piuttosto la strada del potenziale e della metamorfosi, nel tentativo di individuare i fattori primi di ogni storia narrabile. Un po’ torre di Babele e un po’ arca dell’alleanza, emerge nel lavoro come il libro nasca dal bisogno di verificare le ragioni della letteratura e di rivisitare il ruolo dell’intellettuale: sul finire degli anni sessanta, Calvino allestisce in chiave allegorica e figurale un’allarmata riflessione sulla convivenza, profetizzando l’apocalisse di un mondo che è chiamato a recuperare l’antica fiducia nella progettazione e nell’utopia.<br>This work suggests new reading strategies for a novel that represents a singular event, not only in Italo Calvino’s narrative production, but also in the history of Nineteenth-Century literature. The Castle of Crossed Destinies (1973) is approached in a cartographical way, as an attempt to give the map of a labyrinthine world, complicated by inexhaustible meanings and, in any case, destined to be swallowed by Modernity’s wheel. Though conserving the features of the encyclopaedic novel, the Castle is shown as a book that tries to dodge the desire to represent the world as a whole, as a totality: on the contrary, it chooses to go through the paths of potentiality and metamorphosis, seeking the prime factors of every possible story. The Castle is a sort of Tower of Babel, an Ark of the Covenant: Savio’s thesis underlines that this novel grows out of the need to check the reasons of literature and to rethink the role of intellectuals: in the end of the Sixties, allegorically and figurally, Calvino sets up an alarmed reflection about the coexistence of mankind, foretelling the apocalypse of a world that is called to rescue its old faith in planning and utopia.

In this thesis, I compare the impact of processes through which India and Pakistan adopted their competition laws, on the subsequent implementation of these laws in the countries. To this end, I construct a theoretical framework by integrating principles from Legal Transplant, Policy Diffusion and Policy Transfer and Development Economics literatures, which allows for the examination of the adoption process from deliberation to formal adoption through to the implementation stage, in a single continuum. I also develop a typology of mechanisms through which laws may be transferred, particularly from developed to developing countries. In reviewing the adoption processes for competition laws in India and Pakistan, I examine and identify the transfer mechanisms and political and legal institutions, engaged by the two countries. I argue that the Indian competition law, that has been acquired through socialization and by engaging a wide range of bottom-up, participatory and inclusive institutions is more likely to be compatible with the context of the country and to have greater legitimacy in it, than the Pakistani competition law, which has been acquired through coercion and by engaging only a limited range of top-down and exclusive institutions. At the implementation stage I focus on the independent performance of the national competition authorities created by the competition laws and the interaction of these authorities with the courts pre-existing in the countries. This analysis confirms that the Indian competition law is more compatible with and enjoys greater legitimacy in India than its Pakistani counterpart does in Pakistan. However, it also indicates that no transfer mechanism is unequivocally superior to another and that in settling upon transfer mechanisms and institutions for adopting competition laws, it is important for countries to understand the trade-offs they may be making with respect to the implementation of these laws.

This thesis examines the works of Gustav Freytag against the changing socio-political backdrop of the Vormarz, Nachmarz and Griinderzeit. It analyses the concepts of class, nation and folk in his writings, and provides an account of their shifting literary representation between 1840 and 1890. For the first time in recent criticism, it analyses all of Freytag's published work - his poetry, dramas, novels, theatrical theory, journalism, and historical and biographical studies. The thesis reveals a coherent anti-aristocratic position III Freytag's fiction, expressed through a thematic preoccupation with inter-class relationships. It argues that Freytag's love stories encode in the domestic a political polemic which presents German society as undergoing a process of radical bourgeoisification. It traces how Freytag's class concerns are increasingly nationalised after the revolutions of 1848, and explores how his Nachmarz writing constructs a concept of German national identity based on a sense of common German values. It argues that Freytag's later preoccupation with German history allowed him to synthesise his twin concerns of class and nation into a pseudo-philosophical concept termed the Volkskraft - a myth of German folk identity which is shown to be central to Freytag's final historical and literary works. It is a central contention of this project that Freytag's texts not only reflect issues of class, nation and the folk, but that these concepts were key to the coherent political agenda he wished to disseminate through his writing. It is argued that Freytag's works present a systematic attempt to re-imagine the social and political structures of Germany, positioning the bourgeoisie at the heart of the German nation state. Ultimately, Freytag is shown to promote a significantly more radical concept of sociopolitical relations in German society than research into his work has hitherto acknowledged.

Il lavoro, attraverso l'approccio della ricerca etnografica, intende indagare alcune modalità in cui si concretizza l'integrazione dei migranti richiedenti asilo e rifugiati nel comune di Este, con particolare attenzione al progetto SPRAR che coinvolge anche i comuni di Baone e Solesino e al corso di italiano che vi si tiene. La ricerca esplora altresì pratiche di volontariato dei migranti e di associazionismo giovanile nate per favorire l'integrazione, collocandole in una prospettiva di analisi antropologica che possa dar conto delle dinamiche socio-culturali sottostanti a queste iniziative.

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO<br>COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR<br>PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO<br>PROGRAMA DE EXCELENCIA ACADEMICA<br>O chamado Novo Imperialismo e os processos colonizatórios levados a cabo pelas grandes potências europeias nos séculos XIX e XX não apenas tiveram um papel fortemente constitutivo nas disciplinas da História, Sociologia, Antropologia e Relações Internacionais como também definiram em grande medida a geopolítica do sistema internacional contemporâneo. Apagado pela sequência de acontecimentos que fizeram do século XX um dos mais conturbados da História Ocidental, o colonialismo alemão tem passado nas últimas décadas por uma revisão profunda do ponto de vista historiográfico. O presente trabalho apresenta os marcos da inserção da mulher durante o Kaiserreich questionando as narrativas que a apresentam como questão. Uma das soluções à Frauenfrage será a criação das escolas coloniais femininas de Witzenhausen, Bad Weilbach e Rendsburg, temática retomada aqui a partir das lentes epistemológicas da História Global. A partir não apenas da história da experiência de formação colonial feminina, mas também de achados documentais que atestam uma troca de cartas entre as egressas da escola por mais de 20 anos, a pesquisa é guiada pelas seguintes perguntas: onde estão, ou estiveram, as mulheres no projeto de formação colonial? (Enloe, 2014) E o que disseram sobre o mundo ao seu redor? As percepções da realidade política e social partilhadas nas Rundbriefe - correspondências que circularam entre a narrativa pública e privada entre os anos o de 1938 e 1960 - desvelam um outro mapa de relações transnacionais: uma cartografia em que mulheres reescreveram os destinos traçados pelo modelo de formação colonial e política populacional da Alemanha imperial definidos no início do século passado, escreveram a partir de novos lugares materiais e sociais e, por fim, construíram narrativas da geopolítica do decorrer do século XX com efeitos até os dias de hoje.<br>During the XIX and XX centuries, what was known as New Imperialism and the wave of colonization fuelled by major European powers played a leading role in structuring studies of History, Sociology, Anthropology and International Relations, while also defining the international framework of contemporary geopolitics, to a great extent. Eclipsed by the string of events that made the XX century one of the most turbulent in Western History, German colonialism has undergone a sweeping review during the past few decades from the historiographic standpoint. This analysis explores the roles of women during the Kaiserreich, examining narratives presenting them as a question. One of the solutions to Frauenfrage was to set up colonial girls schools at Witzenhausen, Bad Weilbach and Rendsburg, exploring this topic here through the epistemological lenses of Global History. Based not only on the track-record of colonial schooling for women, but also documentary findings reflecting exchanges of letters between school friends for more than twenty years, this research project is steered by the following questions; where are (or were) the women addressed by the colonial schooling project? (Enloe, 2014) What did they say about the world around them? Perceptions of the political and social realities are shared in these Rundbriefe that move seamlessly between public and private narratives between 1938 and 1960, disclosing very different depictions of transnational relationships. In this personal cartography, women rewrote the fates shaped for them by the colonial education model and population policies of Imperial Germany defined at the start of the past century. Described from unsuspected locations both in material and social terms, they built up geopolitical narratives that streamed through the XX century, with effects that extend through today.

Les cellules souches musculaires, ou cellules satellites, adoptent différents états en transitant de quiescence à prolifération et différentiation. Ces transitions s'accompagnent de variations des demandes énergétiques. Il demeure cependant incertain comment la modulation du métabolisme énergétique peut dicter la spécification d'un état cellulaire donné. Mon projet de thèse a eu pour objectif principal la caractérisation des voies du métabolisme énergétique à l’œuvre dans les différents états cellulaires, et comment leur modulation peut influencer ces états. Nous montrons ainsi que les cellules satellites quiescentes ont de faibles besoins énergétiques et que la phosphorylation oxydative est altérée au cours du vieillissement ainsi que dans les cellules survivant après la mort de l'animal. Au cours de la formation du tissu en croissance ou en régénération chez l'adulte, nos résultats indiquent de larges différences dans leurs demandes énergétiques. Les cellules fœtales ont une faible demande respiratoire et reposent essentiellement sur la glycolyse par rapport aux cellules adultes en cours de régénération. L'altération de la b-oxidation peroxisomale et non mitochondriale induit une différentiation précoce des cellules satellites. L'inhibition pharmacologique des b-oxidations peroxisomale et mitochondriale après blessure aiguë montre différentes contributions de ces organelles à la régénération musculaire. Les transitions entre différents états des cellules satellites s'accompagnent de modifications drastiques de leurs besoins énergétiques et l'altération de vois métaboliques spécifiques peut altérer le destin des cellules myogéniques et la régénération musculaire<br>Muscle stem (satellite, MuSC) cells acquire different cell states as they need to pass from quiescence to proliferation and differentiation to support muscle homeostasis. Some of these changes are accompanied by changes in energy demands. However, it is currently unclear whether modulation in the energy metabolism pathways can in turn influence the commitment to a specific cell state. A central focus of my thesis project is to characterise the energy metabolism pathways that act in the different phases of lineage progression and how their modulation can influence the state of the cell. We show that quiescent cells have low energetic demands and OxPhos is perturbed during aging, as well as in cells that survive after death. We also compared different proliferative states, both during muscle growth and regeneration, and our results indicate a surprising difference in their metabolic requirements. Gene expression profiling and bioenergetics analysis showed that foetal cells have a low respiration demand and rely mostly on glycolysis when compared to regenerating MuSCs. Furthermore, we show distinct requirements for peroxisomal and mitochondrial mediated fatty acid oxidation (FAO) in myogenic cells. Altering peroxisomal but not mitochondrial FAO promotes early differentiation of satellite cells. Experiments using acute muscle injury and pharmacological block show differential requirements for these organelles during regeneration. These observations indicate that changes in the cell state of muscle stem cells lead to significant changes in metabolic requirements and altering specific metabolic pathways can have an impact on myogenic cell fate and the regeneration process

When Czech composer Bedřich Smetana's opera The Bartered Bride received its American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in February 1909, New York music critics published positive reviews which displayed a great fascination with the many "Bohemian" aspects of the production. However, certain comments or language used by some critics indicate that American opinions of the Czech people were less than positive. After Czechs began immigrating to America en masse in 1848, already-established American citizens developed skewed cultural perceptions of the Czech people, established negative stereotypes, and propagated their opinions in various forms of press throughout the nation. Despite a general dislike of the Czechs, reviewers revered The Bartered Bride and praised its many authentic "Bohemian" qualities. This research explores the idea of a paradoxical cultural phenomenon in which the prejudice against Czech people did not fully cross over into the musical sphere. Instead, appreciation for Czech music and musicians may have trumped any such negative opinions and authentic Czech productions such as The Bartered Bride may have been considered a novelty in the eyes of early twentieth-century New Yorkers.

Les cellules souches musculaires, ou cellules satellites, adoptent différents états en transitant de quiescence à prolifération et différentiation. Ces transitions s'accompagnent de variations des demandes énergétiques. Il demeure cependant incertain comment la modulation du métabolisme énergétique peut dicter la spécification d'un état cellulaire donné. Mon projet de thèse a eu pour objectif principal la caractérisation des voies du métabolisme énergétique à l’œuvre dans les différents états cellulaires, et comment leur modulation peut influencer ces états. Nous montrons ainsi que les cellules satellites quiescentes ont de faibles besoins énergétiques et que la phosphorylation oxydative est altérée au cours du vieillissement ainsi que dans les cellules survivant après la mort de l'animal. Au cours de la formation du tissu en croissance ou en régénération chez l'adulte, nos résultats indiquent de larges différences dans leurs demandes énergétiques. Les cellules fœtales ont une faible demande respiratoire et reposent essentiellement sur la glycolyse par rapport aux cellules adultes en cours de régénération. L'altération de la b-oxidation peroxisomale et non mitochondriale induit une différentiation précoce des cellules satellites. L'inhibition pharmacologique des b-oxidations peroxisomale et mitochondriale après blessure aiguë montre différentes contributions de ces organelles à la régénération musculaire. Les transitions entre différents états des cellules satellites s'accompagnent de modifications drastiques de leurs besoins énergétiques et l'altération de vois métaboliques spécifiques peut altérer le destin des cellules myogéniques et la régénération musculaire<br>Muscle stem (satellite, MuSC) cells acquire different cell states as they need to pass from quiescence to proliferation and differentiation to support muscle homeostasis. Some of these changes are accompanied by changes in energy demands. However, it is currently unclear whether modulation in the energy metabolism pathways can in turn influence the commitment to a specific cell state. A central focus of my thesis project is to characterise the energy metabolism pathways that act in the different phases of lineage progression and how their modulation can influence the state of the cell. We show that quiescent cells have low energetic demands and OxPhos is perturbed during aging, as well as in cells that survive after death. We also compared different proliferative states, both during muscle growth and regeneration, and our results indicate a surprising difference in their metabolic requirements. Gene expression profiling and bioenergetics analysis showed that foetal cells have a low respiration demand and rely mostly on glycolysis when compared to regenerating MuSCs. Furthermore, we show distinct requirements for peroxisomal and mitochondrial mediated fatty acid oxidation (FAO) in myogenic cells. Altering peroxisomal but not mitochondrial FAO promotes early differentiation of satellite cells. Experiments using acute muscle injury and pharmacological block show differential requirements for these organelles during regeneration. These observations indicate that changes in the cell state of muscle stem cells lead to significant changes in metabolic requirements and altering specific metabolic pathways can have an impact on myogenic cell fate and the regeneration process

Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan 醒世姻緣傳 is a vernacular Chinese novel which was composed in late Ming or early Qing dynasty by an anonymous author in what is now modern Shandong province. Like most of the counterparts to this novel during the same era, Xingshi was composed not as an “art for art’s sake”, but as a vehicle for moral edification and education; it discusses many pressing social issues existing at a time of social turmoil, such as government corruption, moral depravity, migration of peasants due to natural disaster and agricultural involution, roving bandits, the subversion of the gender roles, etc. The novel discussed the social issues through the lives and activities of the residents of an ordinary Shandong town named Mingshui, a microminiature of Qing dynasty China, and presents the golden era of Mingshui which is a microminiature of an idealized Chinese society. This dissertation is a study on the Utopian chapters of this novel with the texts translated into English language with annotations; these chapters are both a continuation of Chinese Utopian literature tradition, as well as the embodiment of the author’s unique understanding of various philosophical and religious schools.<div>Up until now, due to limited resources and texts, little is known about the life and thoughts of the author of Xinshi and the study on the Utopian chapters will shed light on further explorations of the identity and political philosophy of this author.</div>