Mitochondrion is an endosymbiotic organelle synthesizing ~1% of its proteome, while remaining ~99% of the proteins are encoded by the nuclear genome and translated on the cytosolic ribosome. Therefore active mitochondrial biogenesis requires efficient protein transport destined for the different sub-compartments. Mitochondrion contains specialized translocation machineries in the outer and in the inner membrane known as TOM40 and TIM23-complex respectively. Import of a majority of mitochondrial proteome is mediated by inner membrane presequence translocase (TIM23 complex). However, the structural organization of Tim23-complex and mechanisms of mitochondrial inner membrane protein translocation is still elusive. Therefore, the present thesis addresses above elusive questions. Chapter 2 highlights the functional significance of different segments of Tim23 in regulating the conformational dynamics of the presequence-translocase- Tim23 is the central channel forming subunit of the presequence-translocase which recruits additional components for the assembly of the core complex. However the functional significance of different segments of Tim23 was not understood due to the lack of suitable conditional mutants. Our study has reported many conditional mutants from different segments of Tim23 which are precisely defective in the organization of the core complex and in the recruitment of the import motor component which enhances our understanding of protein translocation across mitochondrial inner membrane. Chapter 3 highlights the functional cooperativity among mtHsp70 paralogs and orthologs using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism- mtHsp70s are implicated in a broad spectrum of functions inside the mitochondria. In case of lower eukaryotes gene duplication event has given rise to multiple copies of Hsp70s thereby presenting an opportunity of division of function among these paralogs. The mitochondria of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains three Hsp70s, including Ssc1, Ssq1 and Ssc3 (Ecm10). The Ssc1 is essential for protein translocation and de novo protein folding functions while Ssq1 is needed for the Fe/S cluster biogenesis inside the mitochondria. Although it has been proposed earlier that, Ssc1 and Ssc3 possesses overlapping functions in protein translocation as a part of import motor in the Tim23-complex. However the physiological relevance and experimental evidences in favor above hypothesis was not established clearly. Our study has reported Ssc3 as an ‘atypical chaperone’ which cannot perform the generalized chaperone functions due to the conformational plasticity associated with both the domains of Ssc3 resulting into weaker client protein affinity, altered interaction with cochaperones and dysfunctional allosteric interface. Additionally, we have also highlighted the role of Nucleotide-binding domain in determining the functional specificity among Hsp70 paralogs and orthologs.

The overall purpose of this thesis is to describe, explore and illuminate inner strength among the oldest old. The thesis has a salutogenic perspective where strengths and health are in the foreground instead of weakness and ill health. The thesis is part of The Umeå 85+ study and comprises four studies with both quantitative and qualitative data. The aim of Study I was to test reliability and validity of the Swedish language version of the Resilience Scale (RS) in regard to its stability, internal consistency and validity. A convenience sample of 142 participants aged 19 to 85 years answered the questionnaires the first time and 126 on the retest. In Study II scales aimed to measure phenomena related to inner strength, health and development were used. The aim was to describe resilience, sense of coherence, purpose in life, and self-transcendence in relation to perceived physical and mental health in a sample of 125 participants aged 85 to 103 years. Study III aimed to give a more extensive knowledge of resilience among the oldest old. The relationship between resilience and physical health factors, psychological health factors, diseases and social relations were examined among a sample of 192 persons aged 85 to 103 years. In order to deepen the knowledge about inner strength from a life world perspective the aim of study IV was to illuminate the meaning of inner strength as narrated by women and men 85 and 90 years old. The sample consisted of those 18 participants that scored the highest on the scales aimed at measure phenomena related to inner strength. The findings in study I showed that the Swedish version of the RS was both valid and reliable. Construct validity was established by satisfactory correlations coefficient values between the RS and the Sense of Coherence Scale and the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale. A principal component analysis corresponded well to the original version of the RS. Reliability was assured with both satisfactory internal consistency as well as test-retest reliability. The findings in study II showed significant correlations between the scales aimed to measure resilience, sense of coherence, purpose in life and self-transcendence which indicates that the scales reflect some kind of common core, which was interpreted as inner strength. The oldest old scored high on all scales, this indicating that strength can be preserved or perhaps even increased in old age. The finding also showed lack of significant correlations between the scales and perceived physical health but significant correlations between these scales and perceived mental health among the women but not for the men. No significant correlation was found between physical and mental health. In study III a regression analysis showed that a strong resilience among the oldest old was found to be associated with health, mainly represented by absence of depressed mood but also by not being on medication and by the absence of psychological symptoms, but also that raising children in the past gave a meaning to the present by having a family and this produced feelings of feeling safe and secure in facing the inevitable future; that is, being resilient means living in connectedness with one’s past, present, and future. In study IV a phenomenological hermeneutic approach to the interview text disclosed a meaning of inner strength as Life goes on –living it all, meaning that inner strength still makes it possible to live, handle and being open to ones life in many of its potentials. Inner strength means that one can chose to stand up and fight as well as living in reconciliation, a possibility to work hard as well as feeling relaxed, inner strength means having tasks to accomplish as well as feeling content and proud over ones life as well as life itself, it means relying in oneself as well as having faith in others and God (for some), knowing that you as a person is the same as well as accepting and adjusting to changes. It means that one can chose aloneness and still be connected, it is to be living in the present as well as in one’s past and in the future. That is, living in wholeness. The findings of the studies are discussed in relation to personal strengths and a good aging.

The aim of this research was to explore the piano method and teaching philosophy practised by the Russian piano pedagogue, Natalia Pirozerskaya. Her piano method is not well known and as a former student of hers I firmly believe in its values and implications for piano pedagogy. The focus of her teaching is a holistic concept of the harmonious (organic) development of the artist-musician as expounded by Yakovlev in relation to vocal art and higher nervous activity. Pirozerskaya’s piano methodology addresses the delicate relations between the inner life of the individual and the process of piano playing. She advocates a self-connected pianism characterised by the integration of all processes with the self. Pirozerskaya links the aesthetic values of Glinka’s artistic tradition to piano pedagogy in relation to creative potentialities and self-expression. The participants of this intrinsic case study were Natalia Pirozerskaya, Olga Tsihelashvili (the researcher) and five of Tsihelashvili’s piano students in Johannesburg. I interviewed the five piano students and through validation strategy of crystallisation the themes emerged. Based on the interviews with the students several themes were identified: 1) They explained that they experience an interconnected unity which can be described as oneness; 2) There was also a sense of deep fondness in the way the pupils shared their feelings about the piano; 3) They pinpointed the existence of an inner driving force – a form of artistic energy emerging as a tangible component of their pianistic process; 4) Concerning the special piano touch advocated by Pirozerskaya, all the students unanimously agreed that it is an effortless transmission from the fingertips straight into the piano which “just happens by itself”. They willingly demonstrated this touch on the piano, thus enriching the evidence; 5) With regard to the physical interaction with the instrument, the students observed the element of the opposing spring-support and the feeling of lightness in the body, essential in Pirozerskaya’s piano technique; 6) They mentioned that when they play they experience a deeper perception of the self; 7) Regarding teaching strategies, a rigid teaching approach and inexpressive mechanical piano playing, their spontaneous reactions proved that they have assimilated the fundamentals of Pirozerskaya’s self-connected pianism and developed a deep insight into the pianistic process. / PhD (Music Performance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The aim of this research was to explore the piano method and teaching philosophy practised by the Russian piano pedagogue, Natalia Pirozerskaya. Her piano method is not well known and as a former student of hers I firmly believe in its values and implications for piano pedagogy. The focus of her teaching is a holistic concept of the harmonious (organic) development of the artist-musician as expounded by Yakovlev in relation to vocal art and higher nervous activity. Pirozerskaya’s piano methodology addresses the delicate relations between the inner life of the individual and the process of piano playing. She advocates a self-connected pianism characterised by the integration of all processes with the self. Pirozerskaya links the aesthetic values of Glinka’s artistic tradition to piano pedagogy in relation to creative potentialities and self-expression. The participants of this intrinsic case study were Natalia Pirozerskaya, Olga Tsihelashvili (the researcher) and five of Tsihelashvili’s piano students in Johannesburg. I interviewed the five piano students and through validation strategy of crystallisation the themes emerged. Based on the interviews with the students several themes were identified: 1) They explained that they experience an interconnected unity which can be described as oneness; 2) There was also a sense of deep fondness in the way the pupils shared their feelings about the piano; 3) They pinpointed the existence of an inner driving force – a form of artistic energy emerging as a tangible component of their pianistic process; 4) Concerning the special piano touch advocated by Pirozerskaya, all the students unanimously agreed that it is an effortless transmission from the fingertips straight into the piano which “just happens by itself”. They willingly demonstrated this touch on the piano, thus enriching the evidence; 5) With regard to the physical interaction with the instrument, the students observed the element of the opposing spring-support and the feeling of lightness in the body, essential in Pirozerskaya’s piano technique; 6) They mentioned that when they play they experience a deeper perception of the self; 7) Regarding teaching strategies, a rigid teaching approach and inexpressive mechanical piano playing, their spontaneous reactions proved that they have assimilated the fundamentals of Pirozerskaya’s self-connected pianism and developed a deep insight into the pianistic process. / PhD (Music Performance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

This thesis reports the findings of a research study conducted in an initial primary teacher education college in Dublin, exploring how teacher education students experienced and constructed meaning from a pre-service RE course which recognized the importance of a focus on their inner lives. The study, which adopted a qualitative interpretive approach, was conducted using semi-structured interviews with twelve past students from a recently-graduated year group of one hundred students. The study hoped to uncover how a focus on the inner life was taken up by the research participants in relation to their personal and professional wellbeing and their role as educators in general and religious educators in particular. While it did not seek to generalise as a result of the findings, confined as it is by time and circumstance, nevertheless aspects deemed worthwhile by the research participants may also be deemed worthwhile by the reader and indeed may not be confined to the domain of RE. The findings have been framed generally against the three themes of ‘particularity’, ‘inner-ness’ and ‘ongoing-ness’. The theme of ‘particularity’ relates to the participants’ epistemological journey, as it is concerned with how concrete elements of the course supported inner life work. The theme of ‘inner-ness’ relates to the participants’ ontological journey, as it is concerned with how participants experienced and made meaning from the space provided by the course for inner life work. The theme of ‘ongoingness’ relates to the total RE journey from primary and secondary school to college and into their teaching lives and its impact on participants’ inner lives. What is clear from participants’ responses is that the RE course, and particularly the elements of the RE course that had a focus on the inner life, had a significant impact on participants’ identity, both personal and professional, at an important stage of their development and personal story. The study demonstrates the importance of inner life work for teacher education students and contributes a level of insight into how students appropriate and construct meaning from a created and creative space that supports a focus on that inner life.

The Higgs mechanism is the last piece of the SM to be discovered which is responsible for giving mass to the electroweak W± and Z bosons. Experimental evidence for the Higgs boson is therefore important and is currently explored at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The ATLAS experiment (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) is analysing a wide range of physics processes from collisions produced by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 7-8TeV and a peak luminosity of 7.73×10³³ cm−2s−1. This thesis concentrates on the discovery and mass measurement of the Higgs boson. The analysis using the H → ZZ(∗) → 4ℓ channel is presented, where ℓ denotes electrons or muons. Statistical methods with non-parametric models are successfully cross-checked with parametric models. The per-event errors studied to improve the mass determination decreases the total mass uncertainty by 9%. The other main focus is the performance of the initial, and possible upgraded, layouts of the ATLAS inner detector. The silicon cluster size, channel occupancy and track separation in jets are analysed for a detailed understanding of the inner detector. The inner detector is exposed to high particle fluxes and is crucial for tracking and vertexing. The simulation of the detector performance is improved by adjusting the cross talk of adjacent hit pixels and the Lorentz Angle in the digitisation. To improve the ATLAS detector for upgrade conditions, the performance is studied with pile-up of up to 200. Several possible layout configurations were considered before converging on the baseline one used for the Letter of Intent. This includes increased granularity in the Pixel and SCT and additional silicon detector layers. This layout was validated to accomplish the design target of an occupancy < 1% throughout the whole inner detector. The H → ZZ(∗) → 4ℓ analysis benefits from the excellent momentum resolution, particularly for leptons down to pT = 6GeV. The current inner detector is designed to provide momentum measurements of low pT charged tracks with resolution of σpT /pT = 0.05% pT ⊕ 1% over a range of |η| < 2.5. The discovery of a new particle in July 2012 which is compatible with the Standard model Higgs boson included the 3.6σ excess of events observed in the H → ZZ(∗) → 4ℓ channel at 125GeV. The per-event error was studied using a narrow mass range, concentrated around the signal peak (110GeV< mH < 150GeV). The error on the four-lepton invariant mass is derived and its probability density function (pdf) is multiplied by the conditional pdf of the four-lepton invariant mass given the error. Applying a systematics model dependent on the true mass of the discovered particle, the new fitting machinery was developed to exploit additional statistical methods for the mass measurement resulting in a discovery with 6.6σ at mH = 124.3+0.6−0.5(stat)+0.5−0.3(syst)GeV and μ = 1.7±0.5 using the full 2011 and 2012 datasets.

On June 3rd 2015, I started in Sundsvall a pilgrimage known as S:t Olavsleden that crosses through the most agnostic countries on the world, Sweden and Norway. I got Research funding by Royal Insitute of Art in Stockholm to carry out the project; there was an open call to people participate in it. I proposed the Nordic pilgrim path as an explorational framework in which I focused on how the walking on a sacred route can influence in the individual process. A multinational group of artists, writers, philosophers and archaeologists was selected by me. We arrived to Trondheim on June 2nd after covering almost 600 kms. For completion of the investigation, I decided to walk on Camino de San Olav, a 3 years-old path in my homeland -Spain- from October 23rd to 25th.During the process a series of unexpected things happened. As an artist, I think these events are important because they raise questions about the utility of walking as an artistic practice and my role as activator of aesthetic relational encounters. What happens when the participants are taken out of their comfort zone and their relations generated by the walking engagement? How do they envisage an inner journey? Could they understand my proposal as a symbolic performance and what new perspectives are conveyed? How are the old sacred routes are adapted to the new times?Reviewing the past bring us to the present. In my project, I explored the significant cultural, social and environmental parallels between two paths run across the most uninhabited areas in Europe: the North of Scandinavian Peninsula and the North of Iberian Peninsula. Both of them share a comparable emphasis on ideas of traditional assets that are rooted in the relationship between human habitation and the natural environment. There are human endeavors to maintain their identity and do not fall into oblivion. For this reason, the authorities are making a special effort to make it popular again following the successful model of Camino de Santiago. This fact arises a new secular method of approaching pilgrimage: how the tourist industry adapts itself to the new times using ancestral routes for the consumer wants to live an inner and spiritual journey. The sacred manifestations are becoming a package tours. The offer is not only the spiritual dimension of the way, it is also the aesthetic experience of walking.I am not a believer. While interested in the liminal process of spiritual passages, I have discovered that non-religious persons may experience the mystical in nature owing to the experience of beyond of the sensible world, the Sublime of the landscape. This metaphysical stage can cause an inner transformation due of a new feeling post-encounter. It is important for the development of the creative process because cool things happens: new way to work, the coming of fresh ideas, renewed courage to continue working, more knowledge of oneself... In this aspect, walking practice operates as allegorist embodiment of personal turning point: the stage of in-between before and after. / <p>The tourist seeks a picture, a memory. The pilgrim seeks the redemption. The artist seeks answers.</p><p>Departing from the traditions of the artists of the second half of 20th century that used walking as one of the forms to intervene in nature, I proved the path as a place for discussion, celebration, communal eating, resting, shared knowledge, laughs and pains.... But a differential factor from the walking artists, my aim is not developing physical artworks. The process is the artwork. Art is a framework for engaging moments to effect real change. Art as start-up device to arouse the contemplation of a reality that remains unnoticed.</p><p>As a researcher, I found a modus operandis to finally conflate my Catholic background, the interest in ritual gestures, the walking practice, my personal experiences based on nature, the creation of relational meeting places and my personal family history. Art as a way to explore and to be witness of our time. There is a relationship between S:t Olavsleden and Camino de San Olav but that link is neither forged in the religious meaning nor in the mythic figure of a Christian saint. There is relationship because I have connected to them both. As an artist, I am a catalyst for reaching an symbolic exchange framework from where new experiences emerge to influence in the artistic practice of the people involved in the project. My interest focuses more on the process than the object of art. I do make art with people and for the people. I bring people out of their thicket of daily routines and I offer them an experimental ground as a springboard to develop new works created by each artist in response to their engagement of conflation the physical action with a renewed understanding of connection to their surrounding world.</p><p>This creation of a wandering community is my agreement of the art as way of life. Art production can not get away with disavowing the spiritual or the congregational dimensions of the term. In the metaphorical sense, Art is to walk new ways each time; on completion of this artwork, new questions spring up: Which paths will I walk? How will I experience them? What new project will I share who?</p> / S:t Olavsleden

Hispanic religious ministry provides a way for long established mainstreams to stay afloat in the face of the demographic realities in the U.S. today. Unfortunately, the lack of literature, particularly in geography, precludes the examination of elements of contemporary Hispanic religious outreach, including such considerations as strategies, their effectiveness, and institutional praxis among mainstream religious denominations in the U.S. Using a hybrid methodology that relies on several techniques, I examine Hispanic religious ministry in the Upper U.S. South, which geographers tell us is America’s newest Hispanic destination. I, thereby, develop and present here a case study to compare Hispanic religious ministry in Kentucky’s Inner Bluegrass metropolitan region, which has recently been attracting Hispanics. I use three mainstream denominations including the Roman Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church, and the Southern Baptist Convention to examine the relationships of religious polity, outreach practices, and disparate strategies among these three denominations. Strategies of Hispanic religious ministry among religious organizations associated with the Roman Catholic Church, the United Methodist Church, and the Southern Baptist Convention; reflect many similarities, while simultaneously exhibiting much variation throughout the Inner Bluegrass. Similarities in outreach praxis seem to be predicated on tactics wherein agencies have come to dominate the cultures of contemporary mainstream religious denominations, while polities, historically structured to differentiate religious traditions and doctrines within a continuum of congregational versus connectional organization, seemed to account for much variation among these disparate denominations. While Hispanic outreach in the Inner Bluegrass mostly follow national-level plans or strategies, the Roman Catholic denomination seems most efficient and effective in managing new Hispanic ministries in the Inner Bluegrass today.

The morphological diversity of the external and internal surfaces of the petrosal bone, which contains the structures of the inner ear, across a broad range of therian mammals is documented, and patterns of variation across taxa are identified. One pattern of variation is the result of ontogenetic changes in the ear region, as described for the external surface morphology of a sample of isolated petrosal bones referred to Proboscidea from Pleistocene deposits in central Texas. The morphology of the aquaeductus Fallopii for passage of the greater petrosal branch of the facial nerve supports an ontogenetic explanation for some variation within the proboscidean sample, and a sequence of ossification surrounding the aquaeductus Fallopii is hypothesized. Further ontogenetic patterns are investigated using digital endocasts of the bony labyrinth (preserved on the internal surfaces of the petrosal) constructed from CT data across a growth series of the opossum Monodelphis domestica. Strong correlation between skull length and age is found, but from 27 days after birth onward, there is no correlation with age among most dimensions of the inner ear. Adult dimensions of several of the inner ear structures are achieved before the inner ear is functional in M. domestica. Morphological variation within the inner ear of several eutherian mammals from the Cretaceous of Asia, including zhelestids from the Bissekty Formation of Uzbekistan, is described. The variation within the fossil sample is compared to that observed within extant species of placental mammals, and it is determined that the amount of variation within the Bissekty zhelestid population is within the range of that measured for extant species. Additional evolutionary and physiological patterns preserved within the walls of the bony labyrinth are identified through a high level anatomical comparison of the inner ear cavities across Placentalia as a whole. In particular, features of the inner ear support monophyly of Cetacea, Carnivora, Primatomorpha, and caviomorph Rodentia. The volumetric percentage of the vestibular apparatus (vestibule plus semicircular canals) of aquatic mammals is smaller than that calculated for terrestrial relatives of comparable body size. Thus, aspects of the bony labyrinth are both phylogenetically and physiologically informative. / text

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