This thesis discusses the role of music and musical sounds in Butterfly Burning by Yvonne Vera. It analyses the way that Vera has used music interlinked with the action of the novel.  This thesis analyses a few areas where music is represented and is important such as: music as an element of healing/forgiveness; music as an element of hope; music as an element of despair; music as an element of working life and the absence of music.  This thesis also briefly discusses who the narrator of the novel is and Vera’s writing technique that incorporates images with hypothetical sounds.   The conclusion shows that music and musical sounds are important to the novel.  It also shows that the music in Butterfly Burning can be compared to the music in a film.  Vera has managed to combine the story of the novel and the description of music so that it becomes one inseparable unit.

Class of 2011 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: To assess the role of patient, payer, clinical and disease-related factors in charges and mortality among adult inpatient cases of polycythemia vera in the United States from 2004 to 2008. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study utilized hospital discharge records from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) five consecutive years from 2004 to 2008. RESULTS: There were a total of 156,490 episodes of care involving polycythemia vera between 2004 and 2008. Average age upon admission was 65.94 years (±16.03), with 56% of cases being male (n=87,662). The mean length of stay was 5.14 days (±5.31) and inpatient mortality occurred in 3.1% of cases (n=4,927). The mean number of procedures performed was 1.43 (±2.08) and the mean number of diagnoses on record was 9.56 (±3.86). Charges for each episode of care averaged $32,620 (±42,801), summing to a national bill of $5.02 billion (2010 dollars) over the five-year time horizon. Higher charges were associated with longer length of stay, larger hospital bed size, urban hospital location, teaching status, increased number of diagnoses and procedures, private payer, Western U.S. region, and higher income bracket. Increased mortality was associated with increased age, increased number of diagnoses and procedures, self pay, payer other than Medicare, Medicaid, private or self, and the comorbidities of congestive heart failure, coagulopathy, and fluid/electrolyte disorders. CONCLUSION: Polycythemia vera is associated with considerable burden of illness.

The chemical profiling, characterization of Aloe products and phytochemical properties of Aloe vera were studied. The adulteration of commercial products derived from medicinal plants has been a major muddle for both the society and the pharmaceuticalindustry. Economically motivated adulteration includes the potential for contaminated, sub‐potent or counterfeit medication to enter the supply chain at several levels, from the production of raw ingredients through to the point of retail sale. Darwin’s theory of evolution states that, species undergo genetic variation with time to adapt to environmental changes. Therefore, the same species growing in widely different habitats may drift from the original genetic makeup as a mechanism of adaptation and that may result in them having different chemical profiles. Therefore this study aimed at investigating the phytochemical properties of Aloe vera growing in South Africa. Also, this study aims to utilize Thin Layer Chromatography to profile this plant, as well as use Infra Red spectroscopy to characterize commercial Aloe vera products. A large quantity of Aloe vera plant was collected from AloeWay, Iphofolo Game Farm, Polokwane in the Limpopo province of South Africa. The identity of the plant was confirmedrom literature and authenticated by Professor DS Grierson of Botany Department, University of Fort Hare, Alice. The plant leaves were divided into two portions. One portion was extracted fresh while the other was cut into pieces and oven dried at 400C then and milled to a homogenous powder once dried completely. The phytochemical composition of the gel and leaf extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins and phenols at different concentrations. Results showed that the dry plant material yielded more phytochemicals than the fresh plant material. In particular, it was found that the acetone extract showed much more amounts ofphychemicals than the dichloromethane and aqueous extracts. The percentage compositions of phenols (71.86), flavonols (36.61), proanthocyanidins (82.71), saponins (37.73) and alkaloids (13.29) were significantly high in the acetone extract, followed by the dichloromthane extract with values of 46.85, 37.73, 49.51, 89.0 and 11.11 respectively, while the least composition was found in the aqueous extract. Furthermore, flavonoids were somewhat high in composition in both the aqueous extract of the dried and of the fresh plant material while others were very low. Tannins levels were significantly very low in all the solvent extracts. It was found that the acetone extract showed great amounts of phytochemicals than dichloromethane and aqueous extracts. Since A. vera is used in the treatment of different ailments such as skin wounds and abrasions, eczema, constipation, rheumatoid arthritis etc, the medicinal uses of this plant could be associated to such analysed bioactive compounds. Acetone, hexane, ethanol, water and dichloromethane were used to extract the Aloe vera leaf and the best solvent extract was determined. Thin layer chromatography was used to profile the leaf extracts with the aim of documenting the main phytochemicals present in the Aloe vera growing in South Africa. The best spraying reagent was determined. Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer was used to validate the presence of Aloe vera ingredients in commercial products. The yield extraction ability of the solvent was the order: water>ethanol> hexane >dichloromethane and acetone for the dry portion. However, for the plant extracted fresh, the order of yield produced was ethanol-acetone-dichloromethane > and water. The different solvent systems separated the compounds differently. Hexane: acetone: ethanol (20 : 5: 2) and Benzene: ethanol: ammonium (80): ethanol (10): ammonium solvent systems were noted to be the best mobile phase as they gave the best separation compared to other systems.EMW [ethyl acetate (81): methanol (11): water (8)] showed better separation than the other two separating solvent systems. Vanillin- sulphuric acid spray was seen to be the best spraying reagent as compared to vanillin- phosphoric acid. Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer validated the presence aloe ingredients in aloe vera commercial products.

Les syndromes myéloprolifératifs (SMP) non leucémie myéloïde chronique (LMC) sont des hémopathies myéloïdes chroniques affectant la cellule souche hématopoïétique, pouvant évoluer en leucémie aigüe myéloïde (LAM). Les SMP non LMC incluent la polyglobulie de Vaquez (PV), la thrombocytémie essentielle (TE) et la myélofibrose (MF). La mutation JAK2V617F est retrouvée dans 97% des cas de PV et dans 50% des cas de TE et MF ; elle n'est pas indispensable à la physiopathologie des SMP car JAK2 n'est pas muté à 100%. Afin de progresser dans la compréhension de la physiopathologie des SMP et afin d'identifier de nouveaux marqueurs moléculaires pour le diagnostic, le suivi et le pronostic; nous avons étudié des échantillons de PV, TE, MF ainsi que des LAM post-SMP. Nous avons utilisé des approches moléculaires complémentaires: séquençage, hybridation génomique comparative (CGH-array) et profils d'expression génique. Nous avons identifié des mutations de gènes régulateurs de l'épigénétique (ASXL1, TET2, DNMT3A, SUZ12) et des gènes de la machinerie de l'épissage de l'ARN (SF3B1, SRSF2). Nous avons également identifié que les co-mutations des gènes JAK2 et ASXL1 étaient associées à un mauvais pronostic. Au sein du sous-type MF, nous avons identifié par CGH-array des aberrations du nombre de copies des gènes. Celles-ci contiennent plusieurs gènes candidats susceptibles de participer à la physiopathologie des MF et à l'évolution en LAM (délétion 20q, NF1, ETV6). Nos travaux sur la caractérisation moléculaire des SMP contribuent à l'évolution vers une classification moléculaire avec l'objectif d'une médecine de précision où chaque SMP sera traité en fonction de ses altérations. / Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) are chronic and clonal stem cell myeloid disorders, which can evolve to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). MPN non-chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) include Polycythemia Vera (PV), Essential Thrombocythemia (ET) and Myelofibrosis (MF) (primary or secondary to PV/ET). JAK2V617F mutation is found in 97% of PV and in around half of patients with ET or MF. Nevertheless, this mutation is not essential for MPN physiopathology, because in half of ET/MF cases, JAK2 is not mutated. To progress in the knowledge of MPN physiopathology and in particular of MF; and to find new molecular markers for MPN diagnosis, disease course, and prognosis, we studied several samples of PV, ET, MF and post-AML. We used gene sequencing, array-Comparative Genomic Hybridization (aCGH) and gene expression analyses. We identified several mutations in genes implicated in Epigenetic regulation (ASXL1, TET2, DNMT3A, SUZ12) and in genes implicated in the RNA splicing machinery (SF3B1, SRSF2). We also found that JAK2 and ASXL1 co-mutation is associated with a poor prognosis. In MF, we found by aCGH several copy number aberrations that involve potential leukemogenic genes. Our gene expression data support the hypothesis that PV, ET and MF are a continuum of the same pathology. Our results on molecular characterization help establish a new molecular classification of MPNs with the objective personalized treatment where each MPN will be treated depending on the alterations present in the myeloid cell genome.

Italian poet Vera Gherarducci published her second book, Giorno Unico (A Single Day), in 1970. This project consists of translations of 24 of these poems, a translation of the book’s introduction by Pier Paolo Pasolini, and a critical translator’s introduction. The critical introduction positions the work within the context of post-war Italian women’s poetry; explores the legacy of mental health in literature and its ties with diary writing and gender; and discusses specific translation strategies related to these issues. Giorno Unico deals extensively with themes of mental health, focusing on struggles with depression, suicidal thoughts, marital problems, and maternal anxieties. Such topics place the work in conversation with many other post-war women writers in Italy grappling with new conceptions of womanhood and the burgeoning Italian feminist movement. Themes of mental health are also expressed by the poems being written in the form of an intimate diary, though the temporal mapping is complicated by flashback and circular narration. As the title suggests, these poems come to resemble one long, never-ending day, manifesting in the recurrence of words and phrases, frequent mental health metaphors of being trapped inside, and the repetition of monotonous household work. After contextualizing the work’s primary characteristics, I then frame my own translation approach that looks to foreground the presence of mental health and preserve the characteristics of the diary form. This approach was influenced by feminist translation theorists such as Sherry Simon and Barbara Godard who challenge the monolithic nature of both source and target texts, and endorse the recovery of forgotten women writers through translation. In my principal theoretical assertion, I push against Lawrence Venuti’s discussion of the inherent violence enacted in translation, and conceive of what I term a non-lobotomizing translation approach to Giorno Unico. This framework rejects a masking of mental health in the collection, instead underscoring such taboo themes. In some cases, I choose more clinical translations of terminology to directly reference mental health discourse; in others I select more dated terms, such as “madness,” to gesture to a different framing of mental illness during the writing of Giorno Unico.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka Siri Derkerts och Vera Nilssons betydelse för att vi har konst i tunnelbanan idag. SL kallar tunnelbanan för ”världens längsta konstutställning” och drygt 200 konstnärer har bidragit till utsmyckningen och gestaltningen av de semi-offentliga rum som tunnelbanan utgör. Den första oktober 1950 invigs den första tunnelbanesträckan och dessa nya tunnelbanestationer hade ingen konst. Debatten om konstsmyckningar i tunnelbanan tog fart redan innan den första tunnelbanestationen öppnade. 1955 tog Stockholms stadsfullmäktige beslutet att det ska vara konst i tunnelbanan. Staden och Stockholms spårvägar utlyste en tävling 1956 om vem som får smycka T-Centralen. Nilsson och Derkert, som initierat tävlingen, fanns bland de konstnärer som fick uppdraget att smycka T-Centralen som invigdes 1957: Vera Nilsson med mosaikpelaren Det Klara som trots allt inte försvinner (1957) och Siri Derkert med Linje (1958) en pelare i betong, även kallad Kvinnopelaren.

Recent scholarly interest in Elizabeth von Arnim has related Elizabeth and Her German Garden and The Solitary Summer to the New Woman and Female Aesthete movements, concluding that von Arnim does not align herself with any movement per se. Rather, in these early works, Elizabeth advocates and adamantly defends her right to time in her garden, which becomes her sanctuary for reading and thinking. Little critical attention has been paid to von Arnim's later works; however, many of the themes established in von Arnim's early works can be traced through her later novels. In The Enchanted April Lady Caroline retreats to the garden at San Salvatore in order to escape the attention of others and discover who she really is and what she wants out of life. Because she follows the early von Arnim model by defending her garden sanctuary, she is able to find the strength to insist on being treated as a person rather than a beautiful object. Additionally, Lucy Enstwhistle's interrupted time in the garden in Vera demonstrates the importance of the role of von Arnim's garden in forming an identity and developing the ability to make decisions for oneself. Because Lucy allows Everard Wemyss to rob her of these opportunities, she loses the opportunity to create her identity. She soon becomes the second Mrs. Wemyss, realizes that she is abject, and begins taking on first wife Vera's attributes and passions to cope with Everard's constant demands. Because Lucy has forfeited the formative experiences the garden space can provide, Lucy is left to take up Vera's identity and tragic fate.

La presente tesis tiene como objetivo evaluar la viabilidad técnica, económica y financiera de un estudio de prefactibilidad para la implementación de una empresa productora y comercializadora de Cerámica de Chulucanas. Los principales estudios realizados en el presente proyecto fueron: Análisis Estratégico, Estudio de Mercado, Estudio Técnico, Estudio de Organización y Legal y Estudio Económico y Financiero.

<p>This study is concerned with subject formation in the fiction of contemporary postcolonial authors Abdulrazak Gurnah, Yvonne Vera, and David Dabydeen. In contextualised readings of a total of nine works – Gurnah’s Admiring Silence (1996), By the Sea (2001), and Desertion (2005); Vera’s Without a Name (1996), Butterfly Burning (1998), and The Stone Virgins (2002); Dabydeen’s Disappearance (1993), Turner (1994), and A Harlot’s Progress (1999) – it explores thematic and formal aspects of the subject’s constitution in the texts. Investigating the representation of material and discursive traces that constitute the individual, this study has a double aim. First, it describes the particular historical formations that mould the individual in the different texts. Second, it investigates the tactics used to imaginatively upset these formations in order to present new and more enabling modes of being.</p><p>Gurnah’s fiction depicts the intricate meshwork of social codes, emotions, and narratives that shape subjectivity in a highly unstable and cosmopolitan social reality. His novels repeatedly thematise cultural disorientation, migration, and the efforts of establishing a minimum of social and narrative stability in the form of a home. The chapter reads Gurnah’s fiction against a background of Zanzibari history and diaspora and suggests that various forms of “entanglements” paradoxically provide the means to pull the subject out of states of anxiety and alienation into more viable states of being. Vera’s novels engage a powerful Zimbabwean discourse on history, and the psychic and bodily wounds that result from its violent impact on the subject. Set at moments of special and contested historical importance, her novels address the exclusions and silences of this discourse in order both to assess its effects and the possibilities of imagining alternative versions that would allow other modes of subjectivity. These possibilities are manifested, thematically and textually, through an improvisational form of “movement,” geographical, linguistic, and musical. Dabydeen’s fiction investigates the textual dimensions of identity and its connections to larger cultural archives of tropes and languages. Focusing on the constraining yet constitutive impact of various modes of colonial and racial rhetoric, his literary texts display a manipulation of textual elements from these archives that approaches a re-conception of the subject. To describe this manipulation of English and Caribbean sources, thematised and dramatically staged in his fiction, I am using Dabydeen’s own phrase, “creative amnesia.”</p>

Caractérisée par la présence de la mutation JAK2 V617F, la polyglobulie primitive voit son développement contenu par des saignées mais est associée à une incidence plus élevée de cancers. Une exploration globale de l'immunité des patients a été réalisée par la quantification des sous populations lymphocytaires de l'immunité innée et adaptative. Ceci a permis la mise en évidence d'une diminution des lymphocytes B et d'une augmentation des cellules NK. Les cellules NK sont réputées pour leurs propriétés antitumorales mais elles ne sont pourtant pas capables d'éradiquer la PV, posant la question de leurs capacités fonctionnelles. Si les cellules NK des patients présentent une activité cytotoxique basale inférieure aux témoins, elles ne présentent pas d'anomalies de l'expression de leurs récepteurs, de la production de molécules cytolytiques ou de prolifération. Par contre, les cellules NK d'un patient ayant développé une érythroleucémie ou des cellules NK de sujets âgés par rapport à des témoins plus jeunes présentent des anomalies d'expression des récepteurs. L'augmentation des cellules NK pourrait être liée à la mutation JAK2 V617F. Si cette mutation est présente dans les lymphocytes de tous les patients, il existe des arguments pour sa présence dans les cellules NK de certains patients. Enfin, une analyse transcriptomique a permis de définir un profil d'expression propre aux cellules NK des patients. / Characterized by the presence of the JAK2 V617F mutation, polycythemia vera's development is content by phlebotomy but is associated with a higher incidence of cancer. A global exploration of the immunity of patients was performed by quantification of lymphocyte subpopulations of innate and adaptive immunity. This allowed the detection of a decrease in B cells and an increase in NK cells. NK cells are known for their antitumor properties but they are not yet able to eradicate PV, raising the question of their functional abilities. If NK cells of patients have a lower basal cytotoxic activity than healthy donors, they do not show abnormal expression of their receptors, the production of cytolytic molecules or proliferation. On the contrary, NK cells from a patient who developed erythroleukemia or NK cells from elderly healthy donors compared with younger healthy donors exhibit abnormalities of receptors expression. The increase in NK cells could be related to the JAK2 V617F mutation. If the mutation is present in cells of all patients, there are arguments for its presence in the NK cells of some patients. Finally, transcriptome analysis has identified an expression profile specific to NK cells of patients.