This thesis is concerned with the synthesis and evaluation of various tellurium-based chain-breaking antioxidants. The purpose is to find novel regenerable compounds with improved radical-trapping capacity. In the first part of this work, we explore the possibilities to incorporate tellurium into tocopherols and aromatic amines. Overall, tocopherols carrying alkyltelluro groups are better radical-trapping agents than the corresponding sulfur- and selenium analogues. Among them, 7-octyltelluro δ-tocopherol showed a ca. 17-fold higher reactivity than recorded for α-tocopherol and much better regenerability. Even longer inhibition times were recorded for the corresponding bis(tocopheryl) tellurides. In the aromatic amine series, diphenyl amines carrying alkyltelluro groups were shown to function as efficient radical-quenchers capable of inhibiting peroxidation for 460 min in the presence of N-acetylcysteine. Thiol-consumption experiments suggested that the long inhibition times are due to efficient quenching of in-situ formed alkoxyl radicals in a solvent cage. In the second part of the thesis, we study how the antioxidant properties are affected by variations in the electron density at tellurium and the number of alkyltelluro substituents in the molecule. Evaluation of a series of aryltelluro phenols carrying electron donating and electron withdrawing groups in the para-position of the aryl moiety suggested that a high electron density at the heteroatom prolonged the inhibition time. Among alkyltelluro phenols, alkyltelluro resorcinols and bis(alkyltelluro) phenols, phenols carrying alkyltelluro groups in both ortho positions were superior when it comes to radical-trapping activity and regenerability.

Thesis advisor: Carlo Rotella / Thesis advisor: Cynthia A. Young / From the BLKARTSOUTH literary collective in the 1970s, to public-storytelling-based education and performance forms in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and fiction and nonfiction collections in the years since the storm, this study traces how New Orleans authors, playwrights, educators, and digital media makers concerned with social justice have mirrored the aesthetics and epistemologies of the collaborative African diasporic expressive traditions that began in the antebellum space of Congo Square and continue in the traditions of second-line parading and Mardi Gras Indian performances today. Combining literary analysis, democratic and performance theory, and critical geography with interviews and participant observation, I show how New Orleans authors, theatre makers, and teachers have drawn on "second-line" knowledges and geographies to encourage urban residents to recognize each other as "divided subjects" whose very divisions are the key to keeping our social and political systems from stabilizing and fixing borders and ethics in a way that shuts down possibilities for dissent, flux, and movement. Building on diverse scholarly arguments that make a case both for New Orleans's exceptionalism and its position, especially in recent years, as a model for neoliberal urban reform, this study also shows how the call and response aesthetics of community-based artists in New Orleans have influenced and benefited from the rise of global democratic performance and media forms. This dual focus on local cultures of resistance and New Orleans's role in the production of national and transnational social justice movements enables me to evaluate New Orleans's enduring central role in the production of U.S. and transnational constructs of African diasporic identity and radical democratic politics and aesthetics. Chapter One, "Second Line Knowledges and the Re-Spatialization of Resistance in New Orleans," synthesizes academic and grassroots analyses and descriptions of second lines, Mardi Gras Indian performances, and related practices in New Orleans through the lenses of critical geography and democratic theory to analyze the democratic dreams and blues approaches to history and geography that have been expressed in dynamic ways in the public spaces of New Orleans since the era of Congo Square. My second chapter, "'We Are Black Mind Jockeys': Tom Dent, The Free Southern Theater, and the Search for a Second Line Literary Aesthetic," explores the unique encounter in New Orleans between the city's working-class African American cultural traditions and the national Black Arts movement. I argue that poet and activist Tom Dent's interest in black working-class cultural traditions in New Orleans allowed him to use his three-year directorship of the Free Southern Theater to produce new and lasting interconnections between African American street performances and African American theatre and literature in the city. Chapter Three, "Story Circles, Educational Resistance, and the Students at the Center Program Before and After Hurricane Katrina," outlines how Students at the Center (SAC), a writing and digital media program in the New Orleans public schools, worked in the years just before Hurricane Katrina to re-make public schools as places that facilitated the collaborative sounding and expression of second-line knowledges and geographies and engaged youth and families in dis-privileged local neighborhoods in generating new democratic visions for the city. This chapter contrasts SAC's pre-Katrina work with their post-Katrina struggles to reformulate their philosophies in the face of the privatization of New Orleans's public schools in order to highlight the role that educational organizing in New Orleans has played in rising conversations throughout the US about the impact of neo-liberal school reform on urban social formations, public memory, and possibilities for organized resistance. Chapter Four, "'Running and Jumping to Join the Parade': Race and Gender in Post-Katrina Second Line Literature" shows how authors during the post-Katrina crisis era sought to manipulate mass market publication methods in order to critically reflect on, advocate for, and spread second-line knowledges. My analysis of the fiction of Tom Piazza and Mike Molina, the non-fiction work of Dan Baum, and the grassroots publications of the Neighborhood Story Project asks how these authors' divergent interrogations of the novel and non-fiction book forms with the form of the second line parade enable them to question, with varying degrees of success, the role of white patriarchy on shaping prevailing media and literary forms for imagining and narrating the city. Finally, Chapter Five, "Cross-Racial Storytelling and Second-Line Theatre Making After the Deluge," analyzes how New Orleans's community-based theatre makers have drawn on second-line knowledges and geographies to build a theatre-based racial healing movement in the post-Katrina city. Because they were unable and unwilling, after the Flood, to continue to "do" theatre in privatized sites removed from the lives and daily spatial practices of local residents, the network of theater companies and community centers whose work I describe (such as John O'Neal's Junebug Productions, Mondo Bizarro Productions, ArtSpot Productions, and the Ashé Cultural Arts Center) have made New Orleans's theatrical landscape into a central site for trans-national scholarly and practitioner dialogues about the relationship of community-engaged theatre making to the construction of just and sustainable urban democracies. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: English.

Plusieurs mécanismes de polymérisation radicalaire contrôlée (PRC) sous irradiation lumineuse ont récemment été développés. Ces approches offrent potentiellement de nombreux avantages, en permettant notamment d’introduire dans le mécanisme des PRCs certaines caractéristiques propres aux photopolymérisations, tels que les contrôles spatial et temporel de la réaction. Les travaux de thèse présentés dans ce manuscrit s’inscrivent dans ce contexte, en ayant pour objectif le développement et l’étude d’un nouveau mécanisme de polymérisation radicalaire par transfert d’atome (ATRP) photocatalysée. Après une étude bibliographique présentant l’état de l’art dans le domaine des PRCs sous irradiation lumineuse (chapitre 1), un complexe de bis(1,10-phenanthroline) cuivre (I) (Cu(I)) est utilisé comme catalyseur pour la synthèse de poly(méthacrylate de méthyle)s bien définis par ATRP menée sous l’irradiation d’une lampe LED bleue de faible intensité (chapitre 2). Le mécanisme proposé implique la formation de l’état excité Cu(I)* à partir de Cu(I) sous irradiation, suivie de sa désactivation oxydative par les composés bromés, générant les espèces actives propagatrices et la forme désactivante du complexe Cu(II). Le cycle catalytique est ensuite complété par l’ajout de triethylamine comme agent réducteur permettant la régénération in situ de la forme activante Cu(I) du complexe et conduisant ainsi à une polymérisation plus rapide. Le méthacrylate de glycidyle est ensuite considéré comme comonomère jouant simultanément le rôle d’un agent réducteur (chapitre 3). Des copolymères fonctionnels bien définis, avec une distribution contrôlée de groupes latéraux époxydes, sont ainsi synthétisés. Enfin, le mécanisme d’ATRP photocatalysé est amélioré en développant une procédure permettant la génération in situ de la forme activante Cu(I) en partant d’un complexe Cu(II) stable en présence d’air (chapitre 4). Le mécanisme ainsi développé présente une bonne tolérance à la présence d’oxygène ou d’inhibiteur dans le milieu réactionnel. Les effets de plusieurs paramètres (intensité lumineuse, concentration en ligand et nature du solvant ou du contre-ion) sont étudiés, suggérant un échange de ligand photo-induit comme processus photochimique additionnel impliqué dans le mécanisme d’ATRP photocatalysé étudié. / Several mechanisms of controlled radical polymerization (CRP) under light irradiation have been recently developed. These approaches offer potentially numerous advantages, enabling especially to introduce in the mechanism of CRPs some features characteristic of photopolymerizations, such as the spatial and temporal controls of the reaction. The PhD work presented in this manuscript comes in this framework, aiming at developing and studying a new mechanism of photocatalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). After a bibliographic study presenting the state-of-the-art in the domain of CRPs under light irradiation (chapter 1), a bis(1,10-phenanthroline) copper (I) complex (Cu(I)) is used as catalyst for the synthesis of well-defined poly(methyl methacrylate)s by ATRP carried out under the irradiation of a low intensity blue LED lamp (chapter 2). The proposed mechanism implies the formation of the excited state Cu(I)* from Cu(I) under irradiation, followed by its oxidative quenching by the brominated compounds, generating the growing active species and the deactivator form of the complex Cu(II). The catalytic cycle is then completed by the addition of triethylamine as a reducing agent enabling the in situ regeneration of the activator form of the complex Cu(I), therefore leading to a faster polymerization. Glycidyl methacrylate is then considered as a comonomer playing simultaneously the role of a reducing agent (chapter 3). Well-defined functional copolymers, with a controlled distribution of epoxide side groups, are thus synthesized. Finally, the photocatalyzed ATRP mechanism is improved by developing a procedure permitting the in situ generation of the activator Cu(I) starting directly from an air-stable Cu(II) complex (chapter 4). The mechanism developed in this way exhibits a good tolerance to the presence of oxygen or inhibitor in the reaction medium. The effects of several parameters (light intensity, ligand concentration and nature of the solvent or counter-ion) are studied, suggesting a photo-induced ligand-exchange as an additional photochemical process implied in the studied photocatalyzed ATRP mechanism.

This thesis focuses on attitudes of the majority population against immigrants on the national level. In selected countries of the European Union, these attitudes are analysed with the goal of confirming causality between heterogeneous make-up of the population (in terms of proportion of foreign-born residents in the population) and the degree of xenophobia of the majority population. The work is based on the concept of contact hypothesis and assumes that the larger the relative size of the population of foreign-born residents is, the more positive the attitudes of the majority population are. Attitudes of the majority populations are studied on two levels. First, through the opinions of the European Social Survey 2014 respondents, and second, by the election results of populist radical right-wing parties, which are typically associated with firm anti-immigrant policies. While the levels of xenophobia expressed by the ESS respondents partially fits the expected model, the connection between results of relevant political parties and the percentage of foreign-born residents in the population was not proven. The contradictory results of both analyses are attributed to a so-called "modern racism". Keywords: xenophobia, immigration, radical right, contact hypothesis, Europe

A growing body of research is drawing attention to the importance of open innovation and the reasons firms should progressively switch to this paradigm. However, there is still some reluctance to embrace such approach to innovation. This study investigates the main factors impacting the selection of internal and external new product development in a US multinational company belonging to the semiconductor industry. The main factor found to impact the choice of internal and external innovation is the degree of radicalness of NPD projects. Hence, this is used as additional variable to the internal and external nature of projects to build a matrix, capable of describing the main factors managers take into account when deciding on the projects to undertake. Combining the internal or external and incremental or radical nature of NPD projects, for each category, it was possible to highlight the main dimensions determining the projects selection, namely the expected output and profitability, the purpose of the NPD process, the attention received by managers and the risk involved.

The Sweden democrats has for a long time been labelled as a racist party in swedish media. Due to the problems related to the members of the party in the 90s, where members were subject to criminal actions and racist scandals, the media had focus on the racist actions and labelled the party as a racist party therefore. How does the discourse present itself today? The purpose is to make a comparative study between the year 2014 and 2018/2019 and to research if the discourse surrounding the sweden democrats has changed during this time. Relevance for the study is how we discover, categorize and give the discourses names that helps us and also the reader to understand the process about how the media picture Sweden democrats. Our method is a comparative critical discourse analysis that we are going to use on articles published in the two largest newspapers in sweden, Aftonbladet and Expressen. We will locate the surrounding discourses from 2014 at first and then locate what kind of discourses is surrounding the party in 2018/2019. The main discourse from 2014 is the racist discourse, it´s present in nearly every article we analyse. With the racist discourse, the big difference is that the discourse is changing. When we look upon 2018/2019, new discourses take place, the new discourses we locate it’s the right populism-, scandal- and normalization discourse, the rasism discourse is still present but not so extensive as during 2014. During 2014 the racism discourse depends on the scandal discourse, this changes significant, the scandal discourse is no longer in 2018/2019 dependent on the racism discourse, but it acutally transforms into its own discourse. The focus on racism is almost gone and new scandals take place instead. In combination with the normalization discourse we can se that there has been a change, actually a big change in the media discourse surrounding the Sweden democrats.

I analyse whether coalitions consisting of one or several parties from both political blocs have a causal effect on the following election results of the Sweden Democrats using election data. I find that, when the largest bloc is unable to reach a seat majority in a municipal assembly and forms a coalition with one or several parties from the other bloc, the Sweden Democrats increase their municipal vote share by on average 11.71 percentage points the following election. I interpret the result as support for the view that Swedish voters punish the established parties when they are perceived as becoming more similar in terms of policy and ideology. Moreover, my results show that the effect is only significant in municipalities where no small and/or local parties exist, indicating that the largest bloc in many municipalities prefer to form a coalition with these parties when the opportunity exists.

Radical nationalist groups are growing in Sweden as well as in the rest of the world due to contemporary political, cultural and social rationale, where the internet is used as a catalyzer and tool to organize and spread their ideologies. Simultaneously, the structures and the system that hold journalism seem to be altering at a similar speed. The journalistic reporting on radical nationalist groups has, for this reason, become increasingly difficult. The alt-right, a radical nationalist group in the US expanded much because of the oxygen that American journalists added in an attempt to raise awareness of the danger or the highly problematic opinions that these groups sometimes stand for (Faris et.al 2018). A similar trend in Sweden is not yet visible but the lack of an ethical code of conduct when reporting on radical nationalist groups speaks for unpreparedness. This study aims to understand the ethical approach of Swedish journalists when reporting on radical nationalist groups through the interviews of 8 journalists. ¨´The theoretical approach is based on the structures that affect ethical decision-making along the hierarchy of influence model, by Shoemaker and Reese (1996) as well as journalists’ positioning of ideology and relativism, an ethical concept developed by Plaisance (2005). Based on the interview data collected for this study, some of the journalists in Sweden claim to be consequence neutral, thus it can be assumed that the responsibility of providing accumulated attention to radical nationalist groups which contribute to their expansion is not taken by many journalists. The focus of the interviewed Swedish journalists is rather on up front nazis than the dubious groups spreading online, with some exceptions, which could help explain the more carefree approach. However, the challenges of similar groups’ potential spreading in the near future is an important reason to address ethical approaches on how to best report on radical nationalist groups promptly.

A resistência de bovinos Bos taurus taurus a ambientes tropicais é menor quando comparada com a de Bos taurus indicus. Essa característica influencia os aspectos reprodutivos e vem sendo amplamente descrita na literatura. No que diz respeito aos touros, esta influência torna-se ainda mais significativa, visto que uma menor fertilidade destes impõe enorme impacto na produção animal. Vários são os estudos que comprovam o efeito negativo do estresse térmico sobre os parâmetros seminais de touros europeus provocando diminuição da fertilidade, porém a patogenia deste quadro não está confirmada. Uma hipótese para esta menor fertilidade seria um maior nível de estresse oxidativo nos touros europeus, no qual haveria um desequilíbrio entre a produção de espécies reativas ao oxigênio (EROs) e os níveis de proteção antioxidante. Para testar esta hipótese, foram utilizados 20 touros Simental (Bos taurus taurus) e 20 touros Nelore (Bos taurus indicus), criados a campo, na região de Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, submetidos a duas coletas anuais, durante o verão e inverno, no período de dois anos consecutivos. As amostras foram analisadas através da análise espermática padrão, dos níveis das enzimas antioxidantes, catalase e superóxido dismutase (SOD), e dos níveis de malondialdeído (MDA), produto da peroxidação lipídica, que foi utilizado como índice de estresse oxidativo. Os dados foram analisados pela análise de variância ONEWAY, levando em conta as classes raça (Nelore e Simental) e estação do ano (verão e inverno), através do programa SAS for Windows. As variáveis defeitos menores, defeitos totais e motilidade não apresentaram diferenças quanto a raça ou estação do ano. Observou-se efeito de estação do ano sobre as variáveis defeitos maiores (20,32±15,30% e 12,17±12,27%, verão e inverno respectivamente; p=0,02) e MDA (842,66±527,98 e 419,30±434,14 ng/ml, verão e inverno respectivamente; p=0,006), apenas no sêmen dos touros de raça Simental. As concentrações das enzimas antioxidantes SOD e catalase, não diferiram entre as raças e tampouco entre as estações do ano. Observou-se correlação entre MDA e formas anormais de cabeça (r=0,39, p=0,0035) e entre SOD e defeitos primários (r= - 0,31, p=0,0075). Os resultados obtidos sugerem que houve um maior nível de estresse oxidativo nos animais de origem européia criados a campo em clima tropical em relação aos animais de origem indiana, provavelmente relacionado a uma produção excessiva de EROs sem a devida compensação antioxidante. / Resistance to tropical environments is lower in Bos taurus taurus than in Bos taurus indicus cattle. This trait influences reproductive aspects, and is greatly discussed in publications worldwide. This negative influence is much more significant in bulls, since lower fertility in them highly impacts animal production. There are many studies demonstrating that exposure of European bulls to heat stress will negatively affect their seminal parameters, leading ultimately to lower fertility rates, but the pathogenic pathway has not been clarified. One hypothesis is that this lower fertility is due to higher levels of oxidative damage in these bulls, in which there would be an imbalance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and antioxidant capacity. In order to test this hypothesis, 20 Simmental bulls (Bos taurus taurus) and 20 Nelore bulls (Bos taurus indicus) kept under extensive breeding in the Dourados region, in Mato Grosso do Sul state were used. Semen collection occurred twice a year, during summer and winter, for a two year period. Samples were submitted to standard semen analysis and the levels of the antioxidant enzymes catalase and superoxide dismutase (SOD) dismutase were measured. To evaluate oxidative damage to the cells the levels of the lipid peroxidation product malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured. Data were analyzed for breed (Nelore or Simmental) and season (summer or winter) by the ONEWAY analysis of variance, using the SAS for Windows. Minor defects, total defects and motility did not differ in breed or in season. Season showed an effect on major defects (20.32±15.30% and 12.17±12.27%, summer and winter respectively; p=0.02) and MDA (842.66±527.98 and 419.30±434.14 ng/mL, summer and winter respectively; p=0.006), only in the Simmental animals. SOD and catalase levels did not differ between breeds or seasons. Correlations were observed between MDA and sperm head defects (r=0.39, p=0.0035) and between SOD and primary defects (r= -0.31, p=0.0075). Results suggest a higher level of oxidative stress in European bulls raised in field conditions, when compared to Indian bulls under the same conditions, and this is probably due to a higher ROS production, without a concomitant increase in antioxidant levels.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse how and to what extent Ku Klux Klan constructed a pan-Protestant interpretation of Christianity based on its “myth of America” (Americanism) during the years 1915–30. Using hermeneutic content analysis and a theoretical approach based on Gramscian “cultural hegemony” and historian of religions Bruce Lincoln’s theory of myth, I examine the construction through three analytical themes: the Klan and the myth of America, the Klan’s pan-Protestantism, the Klan and religious patriotism. The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s advocated a theological position where race and religious confession are intimately entwined, and its members hence believed that the white race is God’s chosen people and Unites States a God-ordained nation. Opposing the idea of multiculturalism, Klan members stressed the notion of America as a nation imagined to be threatened by Jews, Catholics, and blacks. Therefore, every white Protestant American had to unite in order to combat these alleged national and racial menaces. This worldview was permeated by aspects of love. It was mostly because of love to God, race and nation – not primarily due to hate – the Klan constructed its interpretation of Protestant Christianity. The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s truly imagined themselves as guard-ians, or Knights, of an endangered culture.