This study is concerned with filling the gap that exists in our understanding of Venetian diplomacy. Historical works on Renaissance diplomacy have tended to be general, and the experience of Venice in the fifteenth century has been largely overlooked (partly because of the lack of extant diplomatic material). Yet this period is of key importance in the history of diplomacy; it was during the mid-fifteenth century that Italian states first used resident ambassadors, something which became accepted practice in sixteenth century Europe. My approach has been to carry out a prosopographical analysis of every patrician who was appointed by Venice as an ambassador between 1454 and 1494. This has allowed investigation into their economic standing, family connections, intellectual interests, and political importance. Such a socio-political approach not only tells us much about diplomatic practices, but also casts light on the development of elite groups in Venice. The first chapter of the study is introductory, explaining the chronological context of the study and outlining the debate over residency and the use of prosopography. Chapter two discusses elites, describes the personnel who manned Venetian missions, and explains the pattern of Venetian representation. Chapter three compares the theory and the reality of Venetian diplomatic practices. Chapters four and five focus more closely on the prosopography and consider the importance of family connections for ambassadors, their humanist interests, their political standing. The final chapter looks at the development of resident and permanent diplomacy in Venice. I argue that Venetian ambassadors were drawn from the highest echelons of Venetian society and that their elevated status affected the nature of Venetian diplomacy. The type of men appointed by the Republic meant that Venice lagged behind many of its neighbours (especially the Princely states) in the use of resident ambassadors. This was primarily due to the nature of the Republic itself; Venice did not encourage long absences abroad or diplomatic specialisation. The Venetian experience shows that the speed at which Italian states responded to changes in diplomacy varied considerably and was closely related to their own cultural and political values.

Computing highly-accurate approximate solutions to partial differential equations (PDEs) requires both a robust numerical method and a powerful machine. We present a parallel implementation of the discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method on graphics processing units (GPUs). In addition to being flexible and highly accurate, DG methods accommodate parallel architectures well, as their discontinuous nature produces entirely element-local approximations. While GPUs were originally intended to compute and display computer graphics, they have recently become a popular general purpose computing device. These cheap and extremely powerful devices have a massively parallel structure. With the recent addition of double precision floating point number support, GPUs have matured as serious platforms for parallel scientific computing. In this thesis, we present an implementation of the DG method applied to systems of hyperbolic conservation laws in two dimensions on a GPU using NVIDIA’s Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA). Numerous computed examples from linear advection to the Euler equations demonstrate the modularity and usefulness of our implementation. Benchmarking our method against a single core, serial implementation of the DG method reveals a speedup of a factor of over fifty times using a USD $500.00 NVIDIA GTX 580.

This dissertation aims to study the reception of the Latin poet Horace in the Italian Renaissance, taking into consideration works composed in several different genres both in Latin and Italian vernacular between 1498 and 1600. This thesis follows five main pathways of investigation: 1) to study the Renaissance biographies of the poet; 2) to analyse several exegetical works both in Horace’s single texts and his whole corpus; 3) to study the Italian translations written both in prose and verse which were made during the Cinquecento; 4) to study in depth those who imitated Horace in their lyrical and satirical poems composed in Italian; and 5) to examine those Neo-Latin poetical works (mainly pertaining to the lyrical and satirical genres). This dissertation points out that the numerous and various forms of Horatian reception help to evaluate the real flourishing of sixteenth-century interest in the Latin poet, interest that reflects the fact that Horace was part of the new Renaissance canon of classical authorities. Within the sixteenth-century conflict of cultures, Horace appears as one of the main protagonists of the critical and literary scenes, as is shown by the attention that his works received from the point of view of editions, commentaries, and translations respectively, as well as by the fact that his texts were placed at the centre of several literary imitative practices, his example being able to offer the Renaissance one important basis upon which to found part of its new culture. Indeed, Horace allowed the emergence of an ethical strain to the Renaissance lyric, as well as contributing to the provision of rules for sixteenth-century literary criticism.

This thesis explores the last decades of legal paganism in the Roman Empire of the second half of the fourth century CE through the eyes of Symmachus, orator, senator and one of the most prominent of the pagans of this period living in Rome. It is a religious biography of Symmachus himself, but it also considers him as a representative of the group of aristocratic pagans who still adhered to the traditional cults of Rome at a time when the influence of Christianity was becoming ever stronger, the court was firmly Christian and the aristocracy was converting in increasingly greater numbers. Symmachus, though long known as a representative of this group, has only very recently been investigated thoroughly. Traditionally he was regarded as a follower of the ancient cults only for show rather than because of genuine religious beliefs. I challenge this view and attempt in the thesis to establish what were his religious feelings. Symmachus has left us a tremendous primary resource of over nine hundred of his personal and official letters, most of which have never been translated into English. These letters are the core material for my work. I have translated into English some of his letters for the first time. The thesis is organised in the main thematically, looking at Symmachus’ religious language, pagan religious ritual, the changing religious topography of Rome itself – and the clash with the Christian establishment specifically with Bishop Ambrose of Milan over the Altar of Victory Affair. The last chapter, although still thematic, looks at Late Antique Paganism through a series of personal events in Symmachus’ life; but is also chronological in the sense that it covers the last seventeen years of it. There are six appendixes, tables and illustrations.

The purpose of this study is to examine the birth of a translation industry in Italy during the fascist regime, and describe how, despite the fact that translations became the focal point for questions of cultural and political prestige, the regime took very little action to hinder their influx until the last few years before its collapse. Chapter One sets the historical background of this study with a brief examination of how the regime was put in place, the system of censorship that was applied, the regime's attempts to cultivate a fascist culture, and the developments that took place within the publishing industry. Chapter Two presents a detailed statistical view of the translation industry in Italy and compares it to other countries, particularly France and Germany. It is important when considering the debate surrounding translation and the political value that translations were to acquire to be able to have a sense of the empirical reality that the rhetoric and bluster often disguised. Chapter Three describes the birth of translation as industry and the campaign against translations that this sudden flourish in translation provoked. This chapter also looks at the relatively flexible censorship policies that were adopted towards translations. Chapter Four describes the second campaign against translations which took place after the Ethiopian war and in a political climate that was increasingly xenophobic. It also looks at how the regime made its first moves to hinder the publication of translation and the ways in which publishers attempted to resist these measures. Chapter Five looks at the final years of the regime, when anti-Semitic legislation was put in force and as a consequence books underwent a thorough "revision". It looks at how the translation question became a matter of national prestige and how the publishers were obliged to collaborate in applying a quota that would limit their number.

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This thesis investigates how health officials sought to preserve or recover good health during plague epidemics in Mantua, from 1463-1577. Scholarship on health boards in Italy has focused primarily on larger cities such as Milan, Florence and Venice, while many smaller cities and states which formed part of the wider network of interdependent health offices have yet to receive significant attention. This study attempts to address this imbalance by focussing on Mantua, a hitherto neglected area in the heart of northern Italy. Historians have shown by the sixteenth century health offices had wide-ranging responsibilities, yet their most important function remained tackling plague outbreaks through measures including trade and travel bans, quarantine periods and lazaretti. An analysis of the Mantuan health office’s actions and reactions reveal that it does not fit neatly with the health board model historians have established elsewhere in northern and central Italy. I will argue that while the hallmarks of the ‘Italian system’ of public health procedures are evident, closer examination of their organisation and composition reveals that they were shaped by the incidence and severity of outbreaks. Above all, however, they were dependent upon and defined by the evolving state apparatus and by participation of the wider community, both lay and ecclesiastic. Contrary to the view that permanent Italian health offices enforced plague regulations uniformly, there was a degree of flexibility in application within the structures created to fight plague. Further, it will be argued that by examining in detail symbolic acts, such as processions, in conjunction with practical methods we see with greater clarity how civic and ecclesiastical authorities worked together in the attempt to restore the city to good health. By exploring the dialogues between civic authorities, the people they governed and interactions between specific health agencies across the peninsula, this thesis contributes to the understanding of the Gonzagan state-building process and concepts of public health in Renaissance Italy.

The hippocampal formation forms a circuit of cytoarchitectonically distinct subregions, and substantial evidence suggests each region makes unique computational contributions that support spatial and episodic memory. With aging, hippocampal subfields undergo unique neurobiological alterations, and primate in vivo work making use of both MR imaging and chronic neural recording devices has important links to changes seen in nonprimate animal models with aging (Thome et al., 2016; Yassa et al., 2011a; Yassa et al., 2010). While MRI offers a noninvasive way to study the hippocampal subfields, identifying hippocampal subregions without using post mortem histology is a challenge. When different research labs attempted to identify the hippocampal subregions using a single subject’s MRI, researchers showed significant disagreement in where to label different subregions (Yushkevich et al., 2015a). Alternatively, chronic neural recording devices offer an invasive solution to studying hippocampal subfields. However, it is currently not clear whether the mechanical trauma and foreign body response produced by neural recording devices disrupts neural circuits critical for behavior. Here, my colleagues and I address these issues with in vivo primate research. Chapter I provides a general introduction to the hippocampal circuits and changes observed in aging. Chapter II presents novel methods for construction of a histology-driven MRI atlas of nonhuman primate hippocampus that addresses accurate identification of hippocampal subfields in MR images. Chapter III presents empirical work that examines whether chronic neural recording devices targeted at the hippocampus affect recognition memory. Finally, Chapter IV provides a general discussion of both works in the context of the broader literature.

Adenocarcinomas e distroglicanopatias são doenças graves que estão associadas a quadros de hipoglicosilação de mucinas tumorais, como a MUC1 (transmembrane glycoprotein Mucin 1) e de mucinas de ?-distroglicana (?-DG). Um dos mais importantes desafios associados à terapia anti-câncer refere-se ao desenvolvimento de estratégias terapêuticas que permitam o direcionamento da ação de drogas anti-tumorais para a célula cancerosa com o objetivo de evitar o acometimento de células saudáveis. Nessa linha, é crucial a construção de sistemas de liberação de medicamentos sítio específicos por meio de marcadores tumorais. Quanto ao diagnóstico das distroglicanopatias, atualmente este se baseia principalmente na observação de manifestações clínicas, biópsias musculares e medidas enzimáticas, sendo que os anticorpos monoclonais disponíveis no mercado não são específicos para a condição do músculo distrófico. Dessa forma, mucinas tumorais e mucinas de ?-DG modificadas tem sido consideradas potenciais alvos para o desenvolvimento de novas estratégias diagnósticas e/ou terapêuticas aplicáveis a estas doenças. Para este trabalho, foram sintetizados, em fase sólida, glicopeptídeos miméticos de MUC1 e ?-DG hipoglicosilados, os quais foram utilizados como ferramenta de busca por novos anticorpos recombinantes. Estes antígenos foram imobilizados em uma placa e sobre eles foi aplicada uma biblioteca de fragmentos de anticorpos (Fabs) humanos recombinantes para o desenvolvimento do processo de seleção pela tecnologia de Phage Display. Após quatro rounds consecutivos de seleção, os genes codificadores dos Fabs da biblioteca não selecionada e selecionada foram sequenciados e analisados in silico na plataforma ATTILA. Esta análise permitiu rastrear o enriquecimento dos domínios VH e VL durante a seleção, além de possibilitar a escolha de inúmeros clones para produção. Para este trabalho, quatro fragmentos de anticorpos scFvs recombinantes inéditos para a mucina tumoral MUC1 e ?-DG hipoglicosilados foram desenhados e clonados em vetor de expressão pET29(a) contendo um marcador de identificação (peptídeo FLAG) e outro de purificação (cauda de histidina). A expressão de um scFv recombinante anti-MUC1 foi realizada em E. coli BL21-DE3 pela adição de 0,5mM de IPTG com indução a 20ºC por 16 horas. A purificação foi realizada por cromatografia de afinidade em resina de níquel, seguida de gel filtração, sendo estas etapas monitoradas por SDS-PAGE. A identificação imunoquímica da proteína recombinante foi confirmada por Western Blot, utilizando o anticorpo anti-FLAG. Entende-se que este trabalho, por meio da produção de novas ferramentas biotecnológicas, poderá cooperar para o desenvolvimento de novas formas abordagens diagnósticas e/ou terapêuticas para tumores e distroglicanopatias. / Adenocarcinomas and dystroglycanopathies are serious diseases associated with hypoglycosylation of tumoral mucins, such as MUC1 (transmembrane glycoprotein Mucin 1) and ?-dystroglican mucins (?-DG). One of the most important challenges associated with anti-cancer therapy is the development of therapeutic strategies that allow the targeting of anti-tumor drugs to the cancer cell in order to avoid the involvement of healthy cells. In this regard, the construction of site-specific drug delivery systems by tumor markers is crucial. The diagnosis of dystroglicanopathies are currently based on the observation of clinical manifestations, muscle biopsies and enzymatic measures, and the available monoclonal antibodies are not specific for the dystrophic muscle condition. Thus, tumoral mucins and modified ?-DG mucins have been considered potential targets for the development of new diagnostic and/or therapeutic strategies applicable to these diseases. For this work, glycoproteins MUC1 and ?-DG hypoglycosylated mimetics were synthesized by solid phase reaction, and were used as a search tool for new recombinant antibodies. These antigens were immobilized in a plate and a library of recombinant human antibody (Fabs) fragments was applied thereon for the development of the screening process by Phage Display technology. After four consecutive rounds of selection, the Fabs coding genes from the unselected and selected library were sequenced and analyzed in silico on ATTILA platform. This analysis allowed us to track the enrichment of the VH and VL domains during selection process, and also presented several option of clones to choose for production. For this work, four novel fragments of recombinant scFvs antibodies specific for tumoral mucin MUC1 and ?-DG hypoglycosylated were designed and cloned into pET29 (a) expression vector containing an identification marker (FLAG peptide) and a purification tag (histidine tail). Expression of a recombinant anti-MUC1 scFv was performed on E. coli BL21-DE3 by the addition of 0.5 mM of IPTG with induction at 20°C for 16 hours. Purification was performed by affinity chromatography on nickel resin, followed by gel filtration, these steps being monitored by SDS-PAGE. Immunochemical identification of the recombinant protein was confirmed by Western Blot, using the anti-FLAG antibody. It is understood that this work, through the production of new biotechnological tools, could cooperate for the development of new forms of diagnostic and/or therapeutic approaches for tumors and dystroglicanopathies.

Countries around the world set ambitious targets to substantially reduce their greenhouse gasses emissions, including those which come from electricity sector. This requires a transition to a low carbon electricity generation and supply system, which in part, can be met by increasing distributed generation (DG) connection and implementing demand side response (DSR) programme on distribution network. Therefore, the role of distribution network operators (DNOs) in facilitating the connection of new DG and the implementation of DSR programme is vital. In order to encourage DNOs to be more active in the low carbon transition, the energy regulator needs to set up financial incentives for DNOs. Current DG incentive mechanism, which is applied in the UK, aims to incentivise DNOs based on the amount of DG capacity connected to the network. Consequently, in a generation-dominated area, the incentives might not be sufficient to cover the reinforcement required for connecting DGs, which in turn, the output energy from DGs will be excessively curtailed. Therefore, this research proposes a new approach, called energy-based DG incentive mechanism. This mechanism will incentivise DNOs based on the utilization of available DG energy on the network and its relation with the requirement of network reinforcement. In terms of DSR incentives, different mechanisms have been applied in some countries, including Australia and USA. Some of the mechanisms incentivise DNOs based on the investment cost or forgone revenue related to DSR initiatives, as implemented in demand management incentive and rate of return mechanisms. Other mechanisms aim to incentivise DNOs based on the energy savings or avoided costs of supply associated with DSR participation, as implemented in shared savings and avoided cost mechanisms. Those mechanisms operate independently without any correlation between them. Therefore, this research develops a new approach to assess the relation between DSR investment cost and DSR participation, called energy-based DSR incentive mechanism. This mechanism will incentivise DNOs based on the utilization of available DSR energy on the network and its relation with the required investment. Comparing with current incentive mechanisms, both energy-based DG incentive and energy-based DSR incentive can reflect the effectiveness of DNOs to deal with the required investments in association with DG connection and DSR implementation on their network.