Aquesta investigació té com a objectiu rescatar el pensament de Robert Hugh Benson i donar-li una estructura conceptual coherent, amb la intenció de fer sorgir la seva imatge del món, mitjançant l’estudi dels conceptes de materia i esperit en les seves obres. En aquesta imatge allò espiritual precedeix i domina allò material. Aquesta interacció pren formes diferents en funció dels aspectes del món en què es produeix. La descripció del món i de l’èsser humà, de la ciència i de la política a les obres d’aquest autor té el seu nucli fonamental d’interpretació en aquests conceptes.

Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2002. / Computerdatei im Fernzugriff.

Aachen, Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2002. / Computerdatei im Fernzugriff.

The book of Revelation is a book that has continually received attention from many who have studied it. Many different views have been expressed on it. There are areas where there are agreements on some issues, while there are also other areas where there are disagreements. Among those areas where there are agreements concerning the book of Revelation are the following : that this book is an Apocalypse, it is a letter from the seer to the people who were experiencing a crisis and it is also a prophecy. As an Apocalypse, it involves visions of two types namely : symbolic visions and visions of heavenly beings. As apocalyptic writing it deals with the ideology that existed within a particular society. It seeks to balance the situation which has become unbearable to those who live within that society in crisis. In its attempts to re-dress the imbalance, it engages the hearer/reader in an intellectual battle rather than a physical one in order to get out of the undesirable condition. Its letter form makes it to communicate its message in an understandable way to the hearer/reader because its message is directed to a specific people at a specific place at a specific time. This status makes it real to the people of all times. As a Prophecy, it is prophesying into the present needs of a community in order for both the present and the future to be meaningful to the living community in crisis. To date there is no common date which all researchers agree upon as the date of writing of this book. Some hold the view that this book was written between 64 and 70 AD while others hold the view that it was written between 81 and 96 AD. I hold the view that Revelation was written between 81 and 96 AD because of the internal evidence in the book itself. The Book of Revelation uses mostly symbolic language in expressing its message. This is the author’s chosen method in order to express the heavenly message given to him in a way that earthly beings could be able to understand and make sense of it. Without the symbolic language, the message would be almost impossible to express to humans because of its mysterious nature. Symbols in Revelation are so powerful “…that it is impossible to find absolute realities behind each symbol” Du Rand ( 1994 : 254 ). Some scholars argue that the strength of the Book of Revelation does not lie in its theological meaning nor its historical information but rather in the evocative, persuasive power of its symbolic language which compels imaginative participation by the hearer/reader. The Book of Revelation came into existence because of the crisis situation that existed within the Johannine community at that time. Schussler Fiorenza calls this a ‘perceived crisis’. In that situation, life had become meaningless to the members of that community because of the oppressive system which was practiced on them. The author seeks to help the hearer/reader to deal with the situation in a way that will bring honour to God. The Christians in the first century were faced with challenges from both within and outside the Church. From within the, there were those Christians who were beginning to live an unacceptable moral life. From outside the Church there were those who were bringing wrong teachings into the Church. These challenges were causing some of the Christians to become unfaithful to God. There was pressure exerted upon the Christians to do what was contrary to their faith in order to be acceptable to their non-Christian counterparts. Such pressure was not necessarily verbal nor official. The seer was writing to encourage the members of that community to remain faithful to their God and refuse to be affected by these challenges. The author of the Book of Revelation wrote specific letters to the seven different Churches to address the specific situations that existed then within the Churches in Asia Minor. These seven Churches are understood to be representative of the Church as a whole today. In all these different Churches, the author exhorts the Believers to fight for the cause of their faith to the bitter end, whatever it may cost them. They are called upon to focus their minds on overcoming, even if it meant death for them. They were to see martyrdom as victory. Those who were to overcome these challenges were going to receive their rewards from their Master. The Book of Revelation makes it very clear to the Christians that opposition is facing them at all times because their Master was also opposed while He was still in the world. They are therefore called upon to be His witnesses throughout their lives. It is this witnessing for Jesus Christ which would bring them into conflict with their opponents. The picture of how the Church is going to be treated by the world is provided in the story of the two witnesses. The witnesses are given power to witness for Jesus Christ for a limited period on earth. During that predetermined period, God protects them from any kind of harm from the Devil. Even when the Devil wants to harm them he is unable to do so. At the end of this period, God removes His hand of protection upon them. It is at this moment that the enemy attacks them and kills them. The Church’s witness is therefore only for a limited period in this world. The Church will be hated because Jesus Christ was hated by the world too. During the Church’s period of witness, she is fully protected by God, nothing can harm her, no matter what happens. But after the Church shall have completed her witnessing task, God will remove His hand of protection from her and the enemy will attack the Church. The enemy’s attack on the Church will be so severe that it will look like it has been defeated by the Devil for a little while. During the period of ‘apparent defeat’, the world will rejoice over the ineffectiveness of the Church. The reason for that is because the Church’s message of sin and judgement has been tormenting the inhabitants of the earth. This points to the fact that the preaching of the true message of the Gospel offends the non - repenting opponents of God. After God’s own predetermined time has passed, God will instill new power and life into His Church. The Church will come to life again, and this to the surprise of the enemy. In the midst of all this, God is actively present in every situation which His Church finds itself in. All that happens to and through His Church is in accordance with God’s salvific plan. God allows whatever he wants to allow to happen in order for Him to demonstrate His power over His Creation. Included in God’s plan is that He will not let His opponents go unpunished. All those who oppose Him are going to be judged when the time comes. God will destroy the Devil and all his followers. However, nothing will force God to change His plans, not even the cries of His saints. The unbelieving inhabitants of the earth are given enough time to repent in order to escape God’s wrath. Victory is promised to all those who follow the Lamb, provided they remain faithful to their calling. From God’s side, the protection of their faith is guaranteed, hence they are called upon to actively witness without fear. After victory has been attained, whether through martyrdom or otherwise, all the victors will be rewarded by living permanently with the Lamb in the new heaven. God’s Church cannot be defeated, after everything has been said and done, the Church will come out the victor. / Prof. J.A. du Rand

Not all payments that an employee receives are cash salary, but may also be salary benefits. It should not matter in which form an employee receives payment, taxation shall be equal despite the form of salary. Cash salary as well as salary in benefits are covered by a general rule in the Swedish Tax Law and shall therefore be taxed when they have a connection to the work performed. There are exemptions to the general rule as some benefits are tax free. In general, taxation shall be easy to foresee.    The legal rules that are treated in this thesis have a general meaning. Therefore the legal rules sometimes have to be filled in or interpreted in order to clarify the meaning of them. As for the provision in 11:8 IL the meaning of it has been clarified by preambles, case law and by recommendations made by The Swedish Tax Agency. Still, the provision may not always be easy to foresee but circumstances in every specific case should make the outcome somewhat foreseeable. Benefits in the form of cars, boats and holiday houses are all benefits that fall within the general rule in 11:1 IL. For benefits in the form of cars to be taxable the car actually has to have been used. While benefits in the form of boats and holiday houses may be taxed just by being available for use. Consequently, it cannot be said that these benefits are treated in the same way. In that sense the provision is not easy to foresee. By developments in case law and by the background in the preambles different treatments of these benefits may be justified.

Le polyamide 11 (PA11) est soumis à des conditions particulières d’utilisation (contraintes mécaniques, température élevée en présence d’eau) au cours desquelles ses caractéristiques mécaniques et physico-chimiques peuvent être altérées. Notamment l’hydrolyse peut générer une fragilisation du matériau par coupure des chaines macromoléculaires. On peut trouver dans la littérature des rapprochements entre propriétés macroscopiques et propriétés microstructurales afin de caractériser la transition ductile-fragile du polyamide. Mais peu d’attention a été portée jusqu’à présent sur la modélisation du comportement mécanique évoluant avec le vieillissement en lien avec la diffusion d’eau dans le matériau.L’objectif de ce travail de thèse est donc de pouvoir prédire la transition ductile-fragile des polyamides, du PA11 en particulier, au cours d’un vieillissement en température et en milieu aqueux acide.La première partie du travail de thèse a porté sur la compréhension de la dégradation mécanique du PA11 en fonction d’un vieillissement hydrique et thermique (à pH4 et à 110°C) en s’appuyant sur une campagne expérimentale afin de relier l’évolution du comportement mécanique macroscopique à celle de descripteurs physico-chimiques. Tout d’abord, des essais de vieillissement en milieu acide et en température ont été effectués pour évaluer la dégradation aux temps longs du PA11. Puis, pour décorréler les effets de l’hydrolyse des effets de recuit, des essais de vieillissement thermique uniquement, en milieu neutre, ont été réalisés. Des essais de traction à la rupture, et des essais de fluage ont ensuite été menés dans le but de mesurer d’éventuelles modifications des propriétés mécaniques au cours du vieillissement. Différentes caractérisations physico-chimiques (DSC, GPC, FTIR, viscosimétrie) ont permis de relier des changements morphologiques à différentes échelles du matériau à l’évolution de ces grandeurs mécaniques macroscopiques. Dans un second temps, une modélisation de la transition ductile-fragile du PA11 au cours du vieillissement a été mise en place. L’évolution de descripteurs physico-chimiques a été intégrée dans le formalisme d’un modèle mécanique développé à IFPEN pour rendre compte du comportement biphasique des polymères semi-cristallins. Le modèle permet de décrire l’impact du vieillissement sur le comportement mécanique du PA11, en particulier l’initiation ainsi que la propagation d’une striction le cas échéant. Enfin, une modélisation de la rupture du PA11 par fragilisation est proposée. / The prediction of the long-term behaviour of polyamides (PAs) is a major challenge for the structural design of various technological equipment in the field of energy and transport. PAs are very ductile when new, but they are sensitive to hydrolysis.Structure-properties relationships of PAs during ageing in water have been somewhat studied in literature. But little attention has been paid so far to the modeling of the mechanical behavior evolving with ageing in relation to the diffusion of water in the material.This work aims to be able to predict the ductile-brittle transition of polyamides, PA11 in particular, during ageing in temperature and acidic aqueous medium.The first part of the work focused on understanding the mechanical degradation of PA11 as a function of hydric and thermal ageing (at pH4 and at 110 ° C), based on an experimental campaign in order to link the evolution of the macroscopic mechanical behavior to that of physicochemical descriptors. First, acid and temperature ageing tests were performed to evaluate the long-term degradation of PA11. Then, in order to decorrelate the effects of the hydrolysis of the annealing effects, tests of thermal ageing only, in neutral environment, were carried out. Tensile tests at break and creep tests were then performed in order to measure possible changes in the mechanical properties during ageing. Different physicochemical characterizations (DSC, GPC, FTIR, viscosimetry) made it possible to link morphological changes at different scales of the material to the evolution of these macroscopic mechanical quantities.Secondly, a modeling of the ductile-brittle transition of PA11 during ageing was put in place. The evolution of physicochemical descriptors has been integrated into the formalism of a mechanical model developed at IFPEN to account for the biphasic behavior of semi-crystalline polymers. The model makes it possible to describe the impact of ageing on the mechanical behavior of PA11, in particular the initiation as well as the propagation of a neck if necessary. Finally, a model of the rupture of PA11 by embrittlement is proposed.

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) is a Gram-positive human pathogen representing one of the most common causes of life-threatening bacterial infections such as sepsis and meningitis in neonates. Covalently polymerized pilus-like structures have been discovered in GBS as important virulence factors as well as vaccine candidates. Pili are protein polymers forming long and thin filamentous structures protruding from bacterial cells, mediating adhesion and colonization to host cells. Gram-positive bacteria, including GBS, build pili on their cell surface via a class C sortase-catalyzed transpeptidation mechanism from pilin protein substrates that are the backbone protein forming the pilus shaft and two ancillary proteins. Also the cell-wall anchoring of the pilus polymers made of covalently linked pilin subunits is mediated by a sortase enzyme. GBS expresses three structurally distinct pilus types (type 1, 2a and 2b). Although the mechanisms of assembly and cell wall anchoring of GBS types 1 and 2a pili have been investigated, those of pilus 2b are not understood until now. Pilus 2b is frequently found in ST-17 strains that are mostly associated with meningitis and high mortality rate especially in infants. In this work the assembly mechanism of GBS pilus type 2b has been elucidated by dissecting through genetic, biochemical and structural studies the role of the two pilus-associated sortases. The most significant findings show that pilus 2b assembly appears “non-canonical”, differing significantly from current pilus assembly models in Gram-positive pathogens. Only sortase-C1 is involved in pilin polymerization, while the sortase-C2 does not act as a pilin polymerase, but it is involved in cell-wall pilus anchoring. Our findings provide new insights into pili biogenesis in Gram-positive bacteria. Moreover, the role of this pilus type during host infection has been investigated. By using a mouse model of meningitis we demonstrated that type 2b pilus contributes to pathogenesis of meningitis in vivo.

Neisseria meningitidis, the leading cause of bacterial meningitis, can adapt to different host niches during human infection. Both transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory networks have been identified as playing a crucial role for bacterial stress responses and virulence. We investigated the N. meningitidis transcriptional landscape both by microarray and by RNA sequencing (RNAseq). Microarray analysis of N. meningitidis grown in the presence or absence of glucose allowed us to identify genes regulated by carbon source availability. In particular, we identified a glucose-responsive hexR-like transcriptional regulator in N. meningitidis. Deletion analysis showed that the hexR gene is accountable for a subset of the glucose-responsive regulation, and in vitro assays with the purified protein showed that HexR binds to the promoters of the central metabolic operons of meningococcus, by targeting a DNA region overlapping putative regulatory sequences. Our results indicate that HexR coordinates the central metabolism of meningococcus in response to the availability of glucose, and N. meningitidis strains lacking the hexR gene are also deficient in establishing successful bacteremia in a mouse model of infection. In parallel, RNAseq analysis of N. meningitidis cultured under standard or iron-limiting in vitro growth conditions allowed us to identify novel small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) potentially involved in N. meningitidis regulatory networks. Manual curation of the RNAseq data generated a list of 51 sRNAs, 8 of which were validated by Northern blotting. Deletion of selected sRNAs caused attenuation of N. meningitidis infection in a murine model, leading to the identification of the first sRNAs influencing meningococcal bacteraemia. Furthermore, we describe the identification and initial characterization of a novel sRNA unique to meningococcus, closely associated to genes relevant for the intracellular survival of pathogenic Neisseriae. Taken together, our findings could help unravel the regulation of N. meningitidis adaptation to the host environment and its implications for pathogenesis.

Abstract The aim of this work was the development of a murine model of septic arthrosynovitis and osteomyelitis caused by Staphylococcus aureus, which could mimic the natural disease occurring in humans and which could be suitable for testing preventive and therapeutic interventions. This model could be particularly useful since S. aureus-mediated joints and bones infections are relevant in humans, both in terms of frequency and severity. Our attention focused in tracking bacterial infiltration in joints and bones over time using different microbiological and hystopathological tools, which allowed us to have a complete overview of the situation and to evaluate the immunological actions undertaken by the host to contain or eradicate the bacterial infection. Antibodies and cytokines profiles, as well as recruitment of host immune cells at joints of immunized and infected mice were therefore monitored for a time period that allowed us to study both the acute and the chronic phases of the disease in situ. Finally the Novartis vaccine formulation proposed against S. aureus infections was tested for its capacity to protect immunized mice from joints infections, and the preventive immunization was compared to a standard antibiotic prophylaxis. The availability of powerful tools to study specific bacterial-mediated diseases is nowadays an important requirement for the scientific community to shed light on the complex interactions between host and pathogens and to test treatments for preventing or contrasting infections. We believe that our work significantly contributes to the overall knowledge in the field of S. aureus-dependent pathologies, opening the possibility for further investigations in several fields of study.

Adhesion, immune evasion and invasion are key determinants during bacterial pathogenesis. Pathogenic bacteria possess a wide variety of surface exposed and secreted proteins which allow them to adhere to tissues, escape the immune system and spread throughout the human body. Therefore, extensive contacts between the human and the bacterial extracellular proteomes take place at the host-pathogen interface at the protein level. Recent researches emphasized the importance of a global and deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms which underlie bacterial immune evasion and pathogenesis. Through the use of a large-scale, unbiased, protein microarray-based approach and of wide libraries of human and bacterial purified proteins, novel host-pathogen interactions were identified. This approach was first applied to Staphylococcus aureus, cause of a wide variety of diseases ranging from skin infections to endocarditis and sepsis. The screening led to the identification of several novel interactions between the human and the S. aureus extracellular proteomes. The interaction between the S. aureus immune evasion protein FLIPr (formyl-peptide receptor like-1 inhibitory protein) and the human complement component C1q, key players of the offense-defense fighting, was characterized using label-free techniques and functional assays. The same approach was also applied to Neisseria meningitidis, major cause of bacterial meningitis and fulminant sepsis worldwide. The screening led to the identification of several potential human receptors for the neisserial adhesin A (NadA), an important adhesion protein and key determinant of meningococcal interactions with the human host at various stages. The interaction between NadA and human LOX-1 (low-density oxidized lipoprotein receptor) was confirmed using label-free technologies and cell binding experiments in vitro. Taken together, these two examples provided concrete insights into S. aureus and N. meningitidis pathogenesis, and identified protein microarray coupled with appropriate validation methodologies as a powerful large scale tool for host-pathogen interactions studies.