Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the hallmark of evidence-based medicine and form the basis for translating research data into clinical practice. This review summarizes commonly applied designs and quality indicators of RCTs to provide guidance in interpreting and critically evaluating clinical research data. It further reflects on the principle of equipoise and its practical applicability to clinical science with an emphasis on critical care and neurological research. We performed a review of educational material, review articles, methodological studies, and published clinical trials using the databases MEDLINE, PubMed, and ClinicalTrials.gov. The most relevant recommendations regarding design, conduction, and reporting of RCTs may include the following: 1) clinically relevant end points should be defined a priori, and an unbiased analysis and report of the study results should be warranted, 2) both significant and nonsignificant results should be objectively reported and published, 3) structured study design and performance as indicated in the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials statement should be employed as well as registration in a public trial database, 4) potential conflicts of interest and funding sources should be disclaimed in study report or publication, and 5) in the comparison of experimental treatment with standard care, preplanned interim analyses during an ongoing RCT can aid in maintaining clinical equipoise by assessing benefit, harm, or futility, thus allowing decision on continuation or termination of the trial.

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This dissertation examines the patronage of Marie de Brabant, queen of France (1260-1322), and how her commissions transformed the atmosphere of the late Capetian court. Bringing with her from her native duchy of Brabant an established set of cultural preferences strikingly different from those that the saintly Louis IX had promoted in Paris for the previous half century, she introduced a love of secular material and elaborate ceremony upon her arrival in 1274. Taking the form of manuscript illumination, sculpture, stained glass, and architecture, as well as literature, music, science, history, genealogy, ritual, and finery, Marie’s patronage set a trend for courtly consumption for the remainder of the medieval period. Nearly always political in nature, her commissions were nonetheless sumptuous to behold, whether secular or sacred in content and they announced her status as Carolingian princess and French queen. Analysis of the frontispiece of Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal Ms. 3142, a richly illuminated miscellany of fictional, historical, and didactic poetry is crucial for understanding Marie’s taste and priorities, and is complemented by study of her other commissions in Brabant and France. These commissions varied from large scale -- such as the addition of chapels to the east end of the church of Notre-Dame in Mantes or window programs for the chapel of St. Nicholas at the church of St.-Nicaise in Reims and her parent’s necropolis at the church of the Dominicans in Louvain -- to smaller format -- the châsse of Ste. Gertrude at Nivelles or the donor statues of the chapelle de Navarre at Mantes. Most numerous, however, are the manuscripts that made up her diverse library which included the secular romances of Adenet le Roi and the scientific treatises of Guillaume de Nangis as well as historical and religious texts all of which were illuminated by the most renowned and creative artists of the day. After an analysis of her patronage as queen and widow, I look to how her activities as patron and collector influenced other late Capetian royal women, many of whom Marie had raised and whose activities, in turn, complemented and complicated their mentor’s vision of queenship. / text

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This thesis examines the political career of Marie de Guise in Scotland during the period 1548-1560. Challenging the conventional interpretation of Guise as the defender of Catholicism whose régime climaxed with the Reformation Rebellion, this study shows that she was, on the contrary, a shrewd and effective politique, whose own dynastic interests and those of her daughter took precedence over her personal and religious convictions. Dynasticism, not Catholicism, was the prime motivational force behind her policy and it is from this perspective that her regime is considered. The eight chapters of the thesis focus on two main themes. Firstly, that Marie de Guise's dynasticism, and political career as a whole, were inextricably associated with those of Mary, Queen of Scots, whose Scottish sovereignty, Catholic claim to the English throne and betrothal to the Dauphin of France carried with it notions of Franco- British Imperialism. And secondly, that Marie de Guise's policy in Scotland was dictated by European dynastic politics and, specifically, by the Franco-Scottish alliance of 1548-1560. Significantly more than a betrothal contract, the treaty of Haddington established a 'protectoral' relationship between the 'auld allies' whereby Henri II was able to assume control over Scottish military affairs, diplomacy and foreign policy as the 'protector' of Scotland. Guise's assumption of the regency in 1554 completed the process of establishing French power in Scotland, which was later consolidated, albeit briefly, by the marriage of Mary Stewart to François Valois in 1558. The overall success of Guise's dynastic and domestic policies, however, was limited. International considerations undermined her policies and weakened her administration. Yet the collapse of her regime came not with the outbreak of the Reformation Rebellion or her alleged defeat at the hands of the Congregation. Only with her death, did Marie de Guise's regime and French power in Scotland truly collapse.

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Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the hallmark of evidence-based medicine and form the basis for translating research data into clinical practice. This review summarizes commonly applied designs and quality indicators of RCTs to provide guidance in interpreting and critically evaluating clinical research data. It further reflects on the principle of equipoise and its practical applicability to clinical science with an emphasis on critical care and neurological research. We performed a review of educational material, review articles, methodological studies, and published clinical trials using the databases MEDLINE, PubMed, and ClinicalTrials.gov. The most relevant recommendations regarding design, conduction, and reporting of RCTs may include the following: 1) clinically relevant end points should be defined a priori, and an unbiased analysis and report of the study results should be warranted, 2) both significant and nonsignificant results should be objectively reported and published, 3) structured study design and performance as indicated in the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials statement should be employed as well as registration in a public trial database, 4) potential conflicts of interest and funding sources should be disclaimed in study report or publication, and 5) in the comparison of experimental treatment with standard care, preplanned interim analyses during an ongoing RCT can aid in maintaining clinical equipoise by assessing benefit, harm, or futility, thus allowing decision on continuation or termination of the trial.

This dissertation analyzes the use of speech (prise de parole ) in Marguerite de Navarre's works of fiction in conjunction with the place that the arguments of the Quarrel about Women hold in her writings. / The texts of the Quarrel about Women, which were very popular in sixteenth century France, tried to prove the superiority or the inferiority of women depending on which side of the debate the writer belonged to. The works of Marguerite de Navarre incorporate numerous arguments of this literary debate to deconstruct them and establish a certain balance between the qualities and the defaults of men and women. Contrary to the writers of the Quarrel who were using as examples women from the Bible or the Antiquity, the Queen of Navarre's works portray mainly characters from daily life in situations that illustrate the way the two sexes use speech differently. / Thus, in the religious poems, women communicate more quickly with the divine because they listen more to their heart which is the receptacle of God. Indeed, the only obstacle that stands between them and mystical union resides in a too strong attachment to a human being, whereas men encounter more hindrances linked, among others, to ambition, science and lust. As for profane poems, they highlight the value of feminine friendship by presenting a free and equal verbal exchange, among women only, based on mutual aid. In the Heptameron, men, in the novellas, hold a greater power than women and it is mirrored in the efficiency of their prise de parole, while there is a certain equality, in the cornice, between the devisants of both sexes. Finally, in the theater, women as well as men deliver God's Word. / Speech which constitutes the most important meeting ground for men and women, in Marguerite's writings, demonstrates how the main criticism directed at women by the detractors of the Quarrel, their unstoppable and slanderous chattering, as well as many other faults are rejected by using examples of women that speak wisely. This makes Marguerite de Navarre's writings modern, because while they deconstruct the binary opposition of man versus woman, with everyday life examples, they do not propose to establish a new hierarchy and thus they are open to plurality.

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