We present a catalog of 11 multiplanet systems from Campaigns 1 and 2 of the K2 mission. We report the sizes and orbits of 26 planets split between seven two-planet systems and four three-planet systems. These planets stem from a systematic search of the K2 photometry for all dwarf stars observed by K2 in these fields. We precisely characterized the host stars with adaptive optics imaging and analysis of high-resolution optical spectra from Keck/HIRES and medium-resolution spectra from IRTF/SpeX. We confirm two planet candidates by mass detection and validate the remaining 24 candidates to >99% confidence. Thirteen planets were previously validated or confirmed by other studies, and 24 were previously identified as planet candidates. The planets are mostly smaller than Neptune (21/26 planets), as in the Kepler mission, and all have short periods (P < 50 days) due to the duration of the K2 photometry. The host stars are relatively bright (most have Kp < 12.5 mag) and are amenable to follow-up characterization. For K2-38, we measured precise radial velocities using Keck/HIRES and provide initial estimates of the planet masses. K2-38b is a short-period super-Earth with a radius of 1.55 +/- 0.16 R-circle plus, a mass of 12.0 +/- 2.9M(circle plus), and a high density consistent with an iron-rich composition. The outer planet K2-38c is a lower-density sub-Neptune-size planet with a radius of 2.42 +/- 0.29 R-circle plus and a mass of 9.9 +/- 4.6M(circle plus) that likely has a substantial envelope. This new planet sample demonstrates the capability of K2 to discover numerous planetary systems around bright stars.

This thesis examines the post-Roman and Anglo-Saxon religious reuse of Roman structures, particularly burials associated with Roman structures, and churches on or near Roman buildings. Although it is known that the Anglo-Saxons existed in and interacted with the vestigial, physical landscape of Roman Britain, the specific nature and result of this interaction has not been completely understood. The present study examines the Anglo-Saxon religious reuse of Roman structures in an attempt to understand the Anglo-Saxon perception of Roman structures and the impact they had on the developing ecclesiastical landscape. In particular, the study reveals how we may better understand the structural coincidence of Roman buildings and early-medieval religious activity in the light of the apparent discontinuity between many Roman and early-medieval landscapes in Britain. The study begins by providing an overview of the evidence for existing Roman remains in the Anglo-Saxon period. It examines the archaeological and historical evidence, and discusses literary references to Roman structures in an attempt to ascertain how the ruins of Roman villas, towns and forts would have been perceived. Particular attention is paid to The Ruin, a poem in Old English which provides us with our only contemporary description of Roman remains in Britain. The first chapter concludes by examining the evidence for the religious reuse of Roman secular structures in Gaul and Rome, providing a framework into which the evidence in the subsequent chapters is placed. The examination the proceeds to burials on or associated with Roman structures. It shows that the practice of interring the dead into Roman structures occurred between the fifth and eighth centuries, but peaked at the beginning of the seventh, with comparatively few sites at the extreme end of the data range. The discussion is based on the evidence of 115 sites that show this burial rite, but it is very apparent that this number is only a fragment of the whole, as these inhumations are often mistakenly identified as Roman, even when the stratigraphy demonstrates that burial occurred after the ruin of the villa, as is often the case. The placement of the bodies show a conscious reuse of the ruinous architecture, rather then suggesting interment was made haphazardly on the site: frequently the body is placed either centrally within a room, or is in contact with some part of the Roman fabric. Some examples suggest that there may have been a preference for apsidal rooms for this purpose. Churches associated with Roman buildings are then examined, and their significance in the development of the English Christian landscape is discussed. Churches of varying status – from minsters to chapels – can be found on Roman buildings throughout the country. Roman structures were clearly chosen for the sites of churches from the earliest Christian period into the tenth, and probably even the eleventh century. Alternatives to the so-called proprietary model are examined, and their origins and development are discussed, particularly in reference to the continental evidence. The end of the study places the thesis into a wider landscape context, and introduces potential avenues of further exploration using GIS. The study concludes that there are a number of causes underlying the religious reuse of Roman buildings, each not necessarily exclusive of the other, and that the study of these sites can further any investigation into the development of the ecclesiastical topography of England, and the eventual development of the parochial landscape.

Radiotherapy has been shown to increase the subsequent risk of heart disease among survivors of breast cancer, but little is known about factors, other than the dose of radiation delivered to the heart, which determine the magnitude of the risk. In addition, survivors of teenage and young adult cancer are internationally acknowledged as an understudied population, and limited information is available on their late health risks. This thesis sought to utilise the largest observational datasets available to date for these populations: the Collaborative Group on Observational Studies of Breast Cancer Survivors and the Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Survivor Study. These were used to firstly characterise the radiation-related risks of heart disease and lung cancer, and secondly to provide an overview of the long-term risk of heart disease for the entire spectrum of cancers diagnosed in teenagers and young adults aged 15 to 39. Initially, a methodology study and systematic review demonstrated that selection effects and other biases can be very problematic during analyses of observational cohorts, particularly when using a radiotherapy comparison. However, in the case of heart disease and lung cancer, one can take advantage of the breast being a paired organ and use a laterality comparison, particularly when laterality played little effect in treatment selection. This comparison was used throughout the analyses of breast cancer patients. This thesis demonstrated that adjuvant radiotherapy for breast cancer significantly increased the risk of heart disease among women with left-sided breast cancer and those patients with ipsilateral lung cancer. Interestingly, younger women were at the highest risk of heart disease, and a progressive proportional decrease in risk with increasing age at diagnosis was found, which has not been shown before. It also suggested that radiotherapy and chemotherapy combined may further increase the risk of heart disease among breast cancer patients. Survivors of teenage and young adult cancer, particularly Hodgkin lymphoma, were at a significantly raised cardiac mortality risk compared to the matched general population. The findings of this thesis provide evidence to support continued follow-up for cancer patients, as survivors were found to be at a substantial risk into the second or third decade after treatment. It has permitted the detection of groups of individuals at particularly increased risks, for example younger patients and survivors of Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosed in teenagers and young adults, for whom closer monitoring for late effects or measures to reduce the risk, such as adaptations to treatment, may be appropriate. Finally, evidence was also presented to support the development of clinical follow-up guidelines specifically for survivors of teenage and young adult cancer.

Belief in prophetic inspiration and the possibility of discerning the future was a cornerstone of medieval conceptions of history and of God’s workings within that history. But prophecy’s significance for the Middle Ages is due as much to the multiplicity of its meanings as to its role as an engine of history. Prophetia was described in terms ranging from prediction and historiography to singing and teaching. This thesis examines the attempts of medieval thinkers to wrestle with these ambiguities. The nature and implications of prophetic inspiration were a crucial area of contention during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as scholastic theologians, with their particular techniques and standards of rationality, attempted to make systematic sense of inspired speech and knowledge. These attempts reveal a great deal about medieval structures of knowledge, and about theological reflections on the Church’s place in history. The stakes were high: ‘prophecy’ not only was the subject of Old Testament exegesis, but also, in its various forms, was often the basis of authority for exegetes and theologians themselves, as well as for preachers, visionaries, saints, and even writers of secular works. Those who claimed the mantle of the prophet came just as easily from inside the institutional structures as from outside. Theologians began legitimating a moderate form of inspiration that justified their own work through ordinary activities such as teaching and preaching, while trying to keep at bay perceived threats from powerful assertions of prophetic authority, such as Islam, female visionaries, and schismatic and apocalyptic Franciscans. This study argues that, as theologians sought to determine the limits of prophetic privilege, and to shape prophecy for their own purposes, they actually opened space for claims of divine insight to proliferate in those ordinary activities, and in a way that went beyond their control.

My doctoral thesis examines the intellectual and political relationship between England and the general councils of the Church from the Council of Pisa until the Council of Trent. It illuminates the hitherto unexplored features of the revolution that was the end of universal papal authority. With the transfer of spiritual authority to Henry VIII, the heads of England’s Protestant regimes inherited the papacy’s distrust of the general council, which had the potential to interfere with the course of the reformation in England. At the same time, the thesis examines the changing nature of public commitment to universal decision-making in the Church in the face of resistance by hierarchs (papal or royal). It finds a widespread support for the general council over the period, but also a plurality of views about how conciliar government could be reconciled with monarchical rule in the Church. In the fifteenth century, conciliarism had to contend with the suspicions of those who wished to shore up the Church hierarchy against Wycliffite attacks. In the sixteenth century, there was still competition between the establishment’s defence of an hierarchical Church, directed by the monarchy, and theories which stressed the importance of conciliar government. These arguments took different shapes when used by popular rebels in favour of traditional religion grounded on conciliar consent, or by Protestants in favour of synodal government by the godly. But they were both outcomes of enduring instabilities in the ideology of Church government, which had their roots in the fifteenth century.

In this thesis, a collective urban sector-consisting, in various different guises, of civic governments, urban merchants, and townspeople-is presented as a vital and distinctive component of later medieval English political society. The dynamics of this urban political sector are reconstructed through the use of a modified version of the 'urban systems' approach found in historical geography and economic history, positing that towns are defined by their evolving relationship with one another. Drawing from the municipal records of twenty-two towns, this thesis charts the composition of the later medieval English 'urban system' and the manner in which urban groups belonging to this 'system' participated in a broader national political sphere over four chronological periods-1413-35, 1435-50, 1450-61, and 1461-71. In 1413-35, the highly authoritative and institutionalised governments of Henry V and the child Henry VI fostered vertical relationships between the Crown and a variety of individual civic governments, leading both national and urban political actors to operate within a shared political culture, but not necessarily encouraging inter-urban political communication. This would change in the periods that followed, as the absence of strong royal authority after 1435 renewed the strength of lateral mercantile networks and facilitated the re-emergence of a semi-autonomous inter-urban political community, which saw little reason to participate in the civil wars of the early 1450s that now seemed divorced from its own interests. In the 1460s, however, the financially extractive policies of Edward IV once again gave civic governments and ordinary townspeople a greater stake in royal government, which was reflected in the high level of urban participation in the dynastic conflicts of 1469-71. The developments occurring in these four phases illustrate both the interdependence of urban and national politics in the later medieval period, and the mutability of their relationship with one another.

This thesis examines the relationship, in theory and in practice, between the concepts of justice (iustitia) and mercy (misericordia) in English courts between c. 1100 and c. 1250. During this period English judges (in courts of both common and canon law) were faced with a serious dilemma. The emergence of systematic law had fundamentally altered the pastoral foundations of the act of judgement. On the one hand, judges were incorporated into a system of law in which justice was expected to be routine and regular. They were bound by procedure, and ‘justice’ was considered to lie in the return of due punishment for injury. On the other, this notion of strict justice coexisted with an alternative way of conceiving of judicial responsibilities, which emphasised that justice was incomplete unless it incorporated within it the principle of mercy. This tradition argued that, both for the benefit of the offender and the judge’s own soul, it was safer and more virtuous to mitigate the punishments prescribed by law. English judges were caught in a dilemma, and were, in effect, obliged to choose between two fundamentally opposed ideas of justice, and two starkly contrasting approaches to sentencing. This thesis argues that such a choice was a problem which concerned the schools of theology as much as it did the courts of law. It examines the attempts of theologians and lawyers to resolve the dilemma and provide practical counsel to judges. Scripture, classical philosophy and patristic texts were the key sources in a discussion of how judicial discretion should be exercised in choosing between punitive and merciful courses of action. Rather than conceiving of justice as a purely procedural exercise, English law, and English judges, appreciated that the act of giving judgement was a complex pastoral challenge.

The experience of becoming a mother is a personal and social experience influenced by individual characteristics, friends and family, and the infant. The journey to become a mother encompasses concepts of maternal competence and responsiveness. The purpose of this study was to examine maternal competence and responsiveness to the infant in mothers of late preterm infants compared to mothers of full term infants. The conceptual model for this work was based on the work of Reva Rubin describing maternal identity and role development. Maternal competence and responsiveness are components of maternal role and are influenced by social support, maternal self-esteem, well-being, stress and mood. In addition, infant temperament and perception of infant vulnerability influence development of maternal competence and responsiveness. A non-experimental repeated measures design was used to compare maternal competence and responsiveness in two groups of postpartum mothers. One group consisted of mothers of late preterm infants 34-36, 6/7 weeks gestation. The second group consisted of mothers of term infants, >/=37 weeks gestation. Both primiparas and multiparas were included in the study. Data was collected in the initial postpartum period prior to discharge from the hospital and again at six-weeks postpartum. No statistically significant differences in development of maternal competence or responsiveness between mothers of LPIs and term infants were identified. This study adds to our knowledge concerning outcomes of mothers of late preterm infants and development of competence and responsiveness.

Uncertainty represents a robust threat that can amplify aversive experiences and exaggerate negative expectations about uncertain future outcomes. Mindfulness – an open and receptive attention to present moment experiences -- has been shown to facilitate adaptive regulation when faced with a variety of distinct emotional threats. Reduced experiential avoidance and equanimity in the face of unpleasant emotional experiences have been theorized as central to these emotional regulatory benefits. The present study explored whether dispositional mindfulness would promote adaptive responses to uncertainty during the anticipation of, and after exposure to emotional stimuli, as indicated by self-reports and neural (event-related potential) markers of anticipation and appraisal. Participants were exposed to stimulus cues that informed them about the valence of a subsequent emotional picture as neutral, aversive, or uncertain. Consistent with past research, uncertainty during the anticipation of an emotional stimulus amplified unpleasant stimulus appraisals, and participants demonstrated biased expectations to associate uncertainty with aversiveness. Dispositional mindfulness was associated with lower expectations for unpleasant stimuli, and was found to amplify the effect of uncertainty on a cortical marker of stimulus appraisal called the late positive potential (LPP). Traits that contrasted with mindfulness predicted opposite patterns of association with these measures. However, these findings were directly the opposite of findings from past research. A theoretically defensible explanation is discussed for these findings and suggestions were made for future research on the role of mindfulness on ERP variability. The results from the present study contribute to a growing body of evidence that suggests that uncertainty during the anticipation of potentially negative future outcomes can exert a potent downstream influence on emotional anticipation and appraisal processes. Further research is needed to clarify the role of dispositional mindfulness during emotional stimulus anticipation and appraisal following uncertainty.

The thesis presents the results of evaluation of archaeological finds from the two settlements in Písek (site "nemocnice") and Topělec. Both settlements are dated to the Late Bronze Age. With respect to the fact that only Late Bronze Age sites of smaller extent have been evaluated and published in South Bohemia so far, the studied settlements offer a more complex view on the composition of ceramic finds in this period and region. Both sites provide ceramic finds analogous to those from Central and Wes Bohemia, however, they do not differ significantly from other South Bohemian sites.