The field of rhetorical aesthetics has a long and rich history. Despite that history, however, aesthetic artifacts have yet to be considered with the same weight that conventional rhetorical artifacts are. My project is to consider the rhetorical effectiveness of aesthetic artifacts, making a case for more inclusion of these types of artifacts in rhetorical theory. I will demonstrate the effectiveness of the aesthetic by performing a comparative analysis of both an aesthetic and conventional reaction to the 2019 fires at Notre Dame de Paris. By considering the constitutive power of the aesthetic, I will argue that the depth of analysis that the aesthetic allows makes it, in some cases, a more effective space for rhetorical analysis than conventional artifacts.

The purpose of this work was to determine the possible effects of isolated spinal ligament transection on the biomechanics of the lumbar spine. A finite element model of a lumbar spine was developed and validated against experimental data. The model was tested in the primary modes of spinal motion in the intact condition, followed by comparative analysis of isolated removal of each spinal ligament. Results showed that stress increased in the remaining ligaments once a ligament was removed, potentially leading to ligament damage. Results also showed changes in bone remodeling "stimulus" which could lead to changes in bone density. Isolated ligament transection had little effect on intervertebral disc pressures. All major biomechanical changes occurred at the same spinal level as the transected ligament, with minor changes at adjacent levels. The results of this work demonstrate that iatrogenic damage of spinal ligaments disturbs the load sharing within spinal-ligament complex and may induce significant clinical changes in the spinal motion segment.

This thesis explores Gregory Abbott's Remlack Too, particularly in its fusion of surrealism and postmodernism. It addresses the ways in which Remlack Too highlights the artist's experience with sleep apnea, but acknowledges that this is only one level of understanding the painting. Other layers are realized through a study of surrealism and postmodernism. This research analyzes the ways in which surrealism and postmodernism work together, including through their lack of style, fluidity in definition, incorporation of semiotics, distrust in science, reliance on psychoanalysis, and especially through postmodernism's appropriating of earlier artistic movements. This thesis reviews the previously overlooked elements of postmodernism in Abbott's oeuvre. By exploring some of the binary pairs found in Remlack Too, such as life and death, sleep and wake, and logic and irrational, Abbott reveals his hopes for a more open-minded and accepting society.

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<p>This thesis comprises the first full-length study of Gregory of Nazianzus's theology of the Holy Spirit. Gregory was a major political and intellectual figure during the pneumatological controversies of the late Fourth Century. Gregory is the first author whose works are extant to declare that “the Holy Spirit is God” in so many words. He advocated, against leading figures including Basil of Caesarea, that such a declaration should be made by the Church, but largely met with failure in his lifetime. Yet, Gregory's affirmation of the Spirit's divinity was eventually to be embraced by nearly all Christians, and it remains so today. Despite these facts, Gregory is usually treated by historians as a minor influence on Fourth Century pneumatology. This thesis will not necessarily challenge this assessment, but will seek to establish a fuller understanding of how Gregory's pneumatology functions in itself such that his historical place can be reassessed in the future.</p> <p>Our key observation is that Gregory's pneumatology is rooted in his understanding of the Spirit's relationship to the Church. A discussion of Gregory's ecclesiological pneumatology comprises Part I. Having presented Gregory's understanding of the Spirit's relationship to the Church, and his understanding of his own place within this relationship, we explore, in Part II, some of the texts in which Gregory argues for his pneumatological doctrine in the face of various opponents. We note that Gregory remains consistently concerned with ecclesiology when engaging other thinkers on the Spirit. We conclude that when Gregory's ecclesiological pneumatology is accounted for, his reactions to the pneumatological controversies of his day appear as consistent, pastorally motivated responses to concerns about the Church's relationship to the Holy Spirit and the preaching of pneumatological truth which Gregory thought this relationship demanded.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

La tesis tiene como principal objetivo analizar la idea de la comunicación en el pensamiento de Gregory Bateson. La primera parte de esta investigación trata sobre la biografía y la obra de Bateson. La segunda parte explora sobre las bases teóricas de la comunicación según Bateson, entre las que reconoce el psicoanálisis, la psicología de la forma (Gestalt), el interaccionismo simbólico y las teorías del aprendizaje como aportes centrales. Con los conceptos claves de estas teorías: inconsciente, puntuación e interacción, Bateson discute y perfila la complejidad de su propia postura postmoderna y ecológica de la mente respecto a la comunicación. La tesis en su tercera parte se concentra en el desarrollo de tres conceptos claves con los que Bateson aborda la comunicación desde una perspectiva sistémica y epistemológica apoyada en la cibernética y desde un enfoque interdisciplinario en dialogo con la antropología, la biología, la psiquiatría y la filosofía. Los conceptos trabajados son: Cismogénesis, Homeostasis Familiar y Retroalimentación Regenerativa. / The main objective of the thesis is to analyze Gregory Bateson´s communication idea. The first part of this investigation deals with Bateson's biography and academic work. The second part of this research explores the theoretical bases of communication according to the thought of Gregory Bateson. Psychoanalysis, the Psychology of Form (Gestalt), Symbolic Interactionism and theories of learning stand out as central contributions. With the key concepts of these theories: unconscious, punctuation, interaction and perception; discusses and profiles to Bateson´s postmodern and ecological proposal on the interaction of the mind and communication. The third part of the thesis focuses on the development of four key concepts used by Bateson to show the importance and complexity of communication from a systemic and epistemological perspective. Supported by cybernetics and from an interdisciplinary approach including anthropology, biology, psychiatry and philosophy, Bateson develops the concepts of Schismogenesis, Family Homeostasis, and Regenerative Feedback.

Geoffrey Brown Abstract: In 1919 the Rusyns of Subcarpathian Ruthenia and Rusyn immigrants living in the United States decided that joining the newly-created Czechoslovak Republic offered them the best possible conditions for a stable future. They agreed to the union on the condition that the Rusyns would be granted the widest possible degree of political autonomy, and this autonomy was then guaranteed by the Treaty of Saint Germain signed in September 1919. Once the territory of Subcarpathian Ruthenia had joined Czechoslovakia, the Government in Prague decided that the Rusyn people were incapable of meeting the responsibilities of governing their own territory, since at the end of World War One they had been among the poorest and least culturally developed of all the nations of Austro-Hungary. The Rusyn leaders, particularly the territory's first Governor, Gregory Zhatkovich, protested to no avail against the Czechoslovak government's refusal to grant the Rusyns their legal right to political autonomy. Prior to the war the Czech public had practically no knowledge of Rusyns or their territory of Subcarpathian Ruthenia. During the first three years of the Czechoslovak state, the Czech media published many newspaper articles which highlighted or exaggerated the primitive nature of the Rusyn people,...

This thesis deals with the topic of human liberty as it was developed in The Great Catechism by St. Gregory of Nyssa. It is concerned with the importance and role of liberty in the particular periods of the history of salvation (creation, fall and redemption) and with the relation between liberty and other important themes of Gregory's work: man as the image of God and as a creature composed of soul and body; the human's fall and the turn from the real good (which is God) towards evil; new life acquired from Christ's resurrection and the adoption of this new life through baptism and the Eucharist. The man was created for life in freedom; life oriented towards the real good: the God. The man cannot be really free without this orientation towards God, but on the other hand this orientation cannot exist without freedom either. God gave man the life and after the fall he returns it to him, but the acceptance and the shape of this life is at all times dependent on the man's decision. The man, as a created being, is someone who changes all the time. And it is just because he can again and again decide about these never-ending changes of himself, that he can have in his power not only his deeds, but also himself: he is his own master, as God is.