Scholarship has tended to depict John Owen as a “Reformed catholic” attempting a synthesis of Reformed principles with a largely Thomist doctrine of God. In this thesis, I argue that this depiction risks losing sight of those aspects of Owen's doctrine of God that are intended to support a distinctly Protestant account of the economy of grace. By an examination of the principles of divine government, I argue that Owen employs the theme of God's “dominion” in order to establish the freedom and gratuity of God's grace, and to resist theologies that might otherwise use the doctrine of creation to structure and norm God's government of creatures. In chapter one, I argue against prevailing readings of Owen's thought that his theology of the divine will is, in fact, “voluntarist” in nature, prioritizing God's will over his intellect in the determination of the divine decree. I show that Owen regards God's absolute dominion as an entailment of his ontological priority over creatures. Chapters two and three examine the character of God's dominion over creatures in virtue of their “two-fold dependence” upon him as both Creator and Lawgiver. Chapter four takes up Owen's theology of God's remunerative justice in the context of his covenant theology. I show here that his doctrine of divine dominion underwrites his critique of merit-theology and attempts to establish the gratuity of that supernatural end to which humans are destined. Finally, in chapter five, I examine the principles of God's mercy, expressed in the work of redemption, where I demonstrate how Owen's conception of divine dominion underwrites the freedom of God in election and his account of particular redemption.

<p>With 2.1 million new cases, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), which is 15-20% of these breast cancer cases is clinically negative for expression of estrogen and progesterone receptors (ER/PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) receptors<a>.</a> It is characterized by its unique molecular profile, aggressive behavior, distinct patterns of metastasis, and lack of targeted therapies. TNBCs utilize glycolysis for growth, proliferation, invasiveness, chemotherapeutic resistance and hence has poor therapeutic response. There is an urgent need for novel/alternate therapeutic strategies beyond current standard of treatment for this subset of high-risk patients. Electrical pulse-based chemotherapy, known as electrochemotherapy (ECT) could be a viable option for TNBC therapy. ECT involves the local application of precisely controlled electrical pulses to reversibly permeabilize the cell membrane for enhanced uptake. ECT can increase the cytotoxicity of the chemotherapeutics up-to 1000 times, facilitating a potent local cytotoxic effect. </p> <p>The high cost and severe side-effects of conventional chemotherapeutics motivate the application of effective natural compounds. Combining electrical pulses with natural compounds will enhance the treatment efficacy. This dissertation focuses on curcumin, the yellow pigment of natural herb turmeric, that has been used for over 5000 years for its excellent anticancer properties. Previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of curcumin for treating multiple cancers, including TNBC, with limited side effects. The potency of curcumin can be enhanced further by combining it with ECT to provide an attractive and cost-effective alternative for TNBC treatment. </p> <p>Towards this we studied the effect of ECT with curcumin on MDA-MB-231 cell line, a human adenocarcinoma epithelial TNBC cell line. We performed various assays, including cell viability, colony forming, cell cycle, apoptosis, H₂O₂ reactive oxygen species (ROS), immunoblotting, real time quantitative PCR (qPCR), and cellular metabolites detection to study the impact of ECT with curcumin on MDA-MB-231 cells. In addition, to better understand the underlying mechanisms, we used high throughput, label-free quantitative proteomics. While several studies have attempted to define the mechanism of action of curcumin on cancer cells, little is known on the action mechanism of the curcumin delivered with electrical pulses. This work unravels the molecular mechanism behind the enhanced effects observed under the ECT-based curcumin therapy in TNBC cells, employing a high-throughput, quantitative, label-free mass spectroscopy-based proteomics approach. The proteomics approach provides information on the thousands of cellular proteins involved in the cellular process, allowing a comprehensive understanding of the electro-curcumin-therapy mechanism. Similar studies were also performed for ECT with cisplatin to compare the efficacy of the electro-curcumin-therapy to the standard stand-alone cisplatin-based therapy.</p> <p>Our results revealed a switch in the metabolism from glycolysis to mitochondrial metabolic pathways. This metabolic switch caused an excessive production of H₂O₂ ROS to inflict apoptotic cell death in MDA-MB-231 cells, demonstrating the potency of this ECT based curcumin therapy. These results encourage further studies to extend the application of ECT for clinical practice.</p>

Pasak prancūzų etnologo Daniel Fabre, istorinis paminklas yra viena akivaizdžiausių manifestacijų, kuria Vakarų Europa per pastaruosius šimtmečius teigė savo istoriškumą . Šiandien ši idėja tampa teorinės polemikos objektu. Šio darbo pagrindinis tikslas – ištirti ir įvertinti naujausius teorinius debatus, skirtus istorinio paminklo idėjos genezei, raidai, bei krizei, visuotinai įsigalėjus heterogeninei sąvokai „paveldas“, taip pat pasiginti į aktualizavimo galimybes ir naujas alternatyvas. Istorinio paminklo genezė tiriama iš dviejų perspektyvių. Pirmoji - tradicinė progresyvioji perspektyva, istorinį paminklą traktuojanti kaip moderniųjų laikų idėją ir didelį dėmesį skirianti juridiniam momentui. Ryškiausi dabartiniai atstovai –André Chastel, Fran&#231;oise Choay, Dominique Poulot. Antroji – novatoriška antropologinė perspektyva, kvestionuojanti istorinio paminklo kaip moderniųjų laikų. idėjos sampratą Analizuojami šių autorių tekstai – Daniel Fabre, Jean-Michel Leniaud, Olivier Poisson. Kritiškai įvertinus šias dvi perspektyvas, pasigilinama į daugiaperspektyvinio modelio galimybes. Istorinio paminklo paradigminė krizė analizuojama trijose dimensijose – ideologiniame, monumentalumo ir istorinės vertės. Įvertinamas šios krizės mąstai lyginant su perdėm heterogeniška tampančia ir už gnoseologijos ribų išslystančia paveldo samprata, pasigilinama į istorinio paminklo aktualizavimo galimybes bei alternatyvas. Kaip pagrindinė alternatyva analizuojama Pierre Nora „atminties vietų“... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / According to the French ethnologist, Daniel Fabre, a historic monument is one of the most obvious manifestations that landed itself to maintaining historicism throughout Western Europe in recent centuries. Today this idea becomes object of theoretical debates. The main purpose of this work is to study and evaluate the modern theoretical debate, when heterogenic concept ,,heritage” is universally accepted and set in, about genesis of historic monument idea, development and the crisis. Also, it is necessarily to go deep into opportunity of actualization and new alternatives. There are two perspectives of inquiring the genesis of historic monument. The works on the traditional progressive perspective tend to present a classic image of historic monument, i.e. a his¬toric monument is exhibited as an idea of modernity, with big attention to juridical aspects. One of the most substantial contemporary scientists representing the classic conception is André Chastel, Fran&#231;oise Choay, Dominique Poulot. As an alternative to this monoperspective theory emerges an innovative interpretation of the modernism of historic mo¬nument developed by contemporary French ethnologists and anthropologists - Daniel Fabre, Jean-Michel Leniaud, Olivier Poisson. This work presents and analyses dif¬ferent visions of the development of his¬toric monument. It aims at attempting to reflect the presented positions and to evaluate the possibilities and challenges of a presumable multi-perspective model. The... [to full text]