My dissertation, “Africans, Cherokees, and the ABCFM Missionaries in the Nineteenth Century: An Unusual Story of Redemption,” assesses the experience of American missionaries in the Cherokee nation and in Western Africa during the nineteenth century. The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), founded in 1810, was the first successful foreign missionary society in the U.S., and its campaign among the Cherokees served as springboard for its activities in “Western Africa”—Liberia, Ivory Coast, Gabon, and South Africa. Although the Cherokees and the West Africans were two different peoples, the ABCFM used the same method to Christianize them: the Lancasterian method with which the missionaries planned to “civilize” the Cherokees and West Africans before Christianizing them. Scholars such as William McLoughlin and Theda Purdue studied the missionary perspective and the Cherokee perspective as separate entities and convincingly maintained that the Cherokees embraced the ABCFM’s civilization and Christianization program partly to relieve the pressures on their lands and partly to adapt to the cultural pressures of their times. However, as my dissertation argues, the conversion story of the Cherokees takes a different turn if told simultaneously from the missionary and the Cherokee perspectives. Regarding the West African experience, authors such as Lamin Sanneh and Richard Gray have recently exposed the missionary and African sides of the stories with new questions that had been waiting to be asked for a long time. My dissertation, taking a unique comparative perspective, reveals first that West Africans did not face the same pressures as those faced by the Cherokees, yet, they still embraced the ABCFM’s civilization and Christianization program, though with a lesser sense of urgency and with more assertiveness than did the Cherokees despite the white missionaries’ racism. More importantly, by way of a method I call parallel agency, my dissertation offers a revisionist interpretation of the history of missions, which has traditionally emphasized the power of the white missionaries by calling into question the very assumption that the white missionaries had significantly more power than did their Cherokee and African converts.

Ce travail de thèse a consisté à synthétiser de nouveaux chélateurs pour la complexation des ions métalliques d10 toxiques en milieu biologique, comme le cuivre (I), lorsqu'il est présent en excès dans les cellules, et le mercure (II), délétère à l'état de traces. En particulier, des tripodes à trois soufres, inspirés de tripodes fonctionnalisés par trois dérivés cystéine, développés antérieurement au laboratoire, ont été élaborés et leur propriétés de complexation avec le cuivre (I) ont été examinées. Comme les tripodes cystéines, les nouveaux tripodes fonctionnalisés par d'autres dérivés soufrés, en particulier des dérivés de D-Pénicillamine (D-PEN), sont capables de complexer le cuivre (I) dans des environnements CuS3 avec de fortes affinités et sélectivités par rapport au zinc (II) présent dans les milieux biologiques. Des études structurales approfondies effectuées par spectroscopie d'absorption des rayons X (XAS) ont permis de caractériser complètement les complexes et clusters de cuivre (I) formés, de corréler les mesures d'affinités effectuées en utilisant différentes techniques et de rationaliser les relations structure/ affinité observées. L'un des nouveaux tripodes a ensuite été fonctionnalisé pour être ciblé vers les cellules du foie, où une accumulation de cuivre est observée chez les patients atteints de la maladie de Wilson. Les premiers tests biologiques réalisés sur des cellules hépatiques ont montré que l'architecture fonctionnalisée ainsi conçue (CHEL4) est capable de complexer le cuivre (I) en excès in cellulo. Cette étude conforte les résultats obtenus antérieurement au laboratoire avec le tripode cystéine fonctionnalisé (CHEL2) et valide donc le système de vectorisation vers les hépatocytes. Les propriétés de complexation des nouveaux tripodes avec l'ion toxique mercure (II), plus gros et plus mou que l'ion cuivre (I), ont aussi été étudiées. Il a ainsi été établi que les nouveaux tripodes thiolates peuvent aussi stabiliser un environnement trigonal autour du mercure (II). Notre étude a donc montré comment des tripodes soufrés de faible poids moléculaire, judicieusement fonctionnalisés, peuvent accommoder des environnements trigonaux très stables autour des ions mous cuivre (I) et mercure (II). De tels environnements miment plus ou moins les sites trigonaux du cuivre (I) et du mercure (II) trouvés dans les protéines à cuivre (I) (Ctr1, Mac1, Ace 1, COX…), les protéines bactériennes de détoxification du mercure (II) (Mer-R), et les métallothionéines (MTs), petites protéines riches en cystéines qui complexent les ions métalliques en excès ou toxiques dans les cellules. Ces analogies avec les complexes métalliques biologiques permettent de rationnaliser les fortes affinités des nouveaux tripodes pour les ions mous cuivre (I) et mercure (II). Plus généralement, notre étude apporte des règles de design moléculaires pour concevoir des architectures efficaces dédiées à la détoxification des métaux mous en milieu biologiques. Mots clés : cuivre (I), zinc (II), mercure (II), maladie de Wilson, foie, surcharges métalliques, toxicité, chélateurs, tripodes soufrés, cystéine, D-pénicillamine (D-PEN), environnements trigonaux, protéines du cuivre (I), métallothionéines (MTs), Mer-R, Spectroscopie d'Absorption des rayons X (XAS). / This work consisted in the syntheses of new chelators for the binding of soft d10 metal ions in biological media, such as the copper (I) ion, toxic at high levels in the cells, and the mercury (II) ion, deleterious even at low concentrations. In particular, new suphur-based tripodal architectures, derived from the cysteine-based architectures previously designed at the laboratory, have been synthetized and their binding properties with the copper (I) ion have been looked into. As the cysteine-based scaffolds, the new chelators, based on new sulphur compounds, in particular D-Penicillamine (D-PEN) derivatives, complex the copper (I) ion in trigonal CuS3 environments with high affinities and high selectivities with respect to the bioavailable zinc (II) ion. In depth structural studies have been performed by X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) to fully characterize the copper (I) complexes and the copper (I) clusters formed in solution, to correlate the affinity measurements performed using different analytical techniques and to rationalize structure/ affinity relationships. One of the new chelators has been functionalized to be targeted to the liver cells, where copper (I) overloads are observed when people suffer from the Wilson's disease. The first biological experiments carried out in hepatocytes, have shown that the functionalized chelator (CHEL4) complexes excess copper (I) in cellulo. This study supports the results previously obtained with the functionalized cysteine-based architecture (CHEL2) and thus validates the targeting system. The binding properties of the new tripodal architectures with the mercury (II) ion, bulkier and softer than the copper (I) ion, have also been studied. It has been established that the new chelators also stabilize trigonal environments around the mercury (II) ion. Thus this study has shown how low molecular weight sulphur-based tripodal architectures, judiciously functionalized, are able to adapt stable sulphur-only trigonal environments around the soft metal ions, copper (I) and mercury (II). Such environments reproduce more or less the trigonal binding sites found in copper (I) proteins (Crt1, Mac1, Ace1, COX…), bacteria proteins dedicated to mercury (II) detoxification (Mer-R) and metallothioneins (MTs), which are small cysteine-rich proteins in charge of the detoxification of toxic metal ions in cells. Those structural analogies shared with the biological metallic complexes allow us to rationalize the high affinities of the new tripodal architectures for soft metal ions. In a more extended point of view, this study brings some guidelines of molecular design to elaborate efficient chelators dedicated to the detoxification of soft metal ion in biological media. Keywords: copper (I), zinc (II), mercury (II), Wilson's disease, liver, metal overloads, toxicity, chelators, sulphur-based tripods, cysteine, D-penicillamine (D-PEN), trigonal environments, copper (I) proteins, metallothioneins, Mer-R, X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS).

O objetivo desta dissertação é revisar os operadores laços de Wilson no contexto da correspondência AdS/CFT. Estes operadores, presentes em qualquer teoria de calibre, são importantes por nos fornecer um parâmetro de ordem para a transição de fase confinante/desconfinante. Além disso, eles são particularmente importantes no estudo da correspondência AdS/ CFT pois: i) Eles nos dão, em alguns casos, resultados exatos graças ao fato de poderem ser localizados em um modelo de matrizes, desta forma nos permitindo fazer testes altamente não triviais da correspondência; ii) Eles são os objetos da teoria de calibre que são duais as cordas propagando no interior do espaço, nos dando um rico dicionário entre quantidades no interior (AdS) e na borda do espaço (CFT). Depois de revisarmos os laços de Wilson em teorias de calibre e a correspondência Ads/CFT, introduziremos a definição dos laços de Wilson supersimétricos 1/2 BPS. Calcularemos eles para o caso de um acoplamento fraco e para qualquer outro valor da constante de acoplamento usando técnicas de modelos de matrizes. Finalmente, compararemos nossos resultados com computações de superfícies minimais no interior do espaço, encontrando uma concordância perfeita. / The aim of this thesis is to review Wilson loop operators in the contexto f the AdS/CFT correspondence. These operators, wich are present in any gauge theory, are important because they furnish an order parameter for confinement/deconfinement phase transitions. Besides this, they are particularly relevant in the study of the AdS/CFT correspondence because: i) they allow, in some cases, for exact results thanks to localization to matrix models and make it possible to perform highly non-trivial tests of the correspondence; ii) they are the gauge theory objects dual to strings propagating in the bulk of the space and give a rich dictionary between bulk (AdS) and boundary (CFT) quantities. After reviews of Wilson loops in gauge theories and of the Ads/CFT correspondence, we will introduce the definition of 1/2 BPS supersymmetric Wilson loops, we will compute them at weak coupling and then at any order in the coupling constant via matrix model techniques, and finally we will compare our results with minimal surface computations in the bulk, finding perfect agreement.

In a single capture-recapture problem, two new Wilson methods for interval estimation of population size are derived. Classical Chapman interval, Wilson and Wilson-cc intervals are examined and compared in terms of their expected interval width and exact coverage properties in two models. The new approach performs better than the Chapman in each model. Bayesian analysis also gives a different way to estimate population size.

Die konforme Feldtheorie findet in verschiedenen Bereichen Anwendungen, von statistischen Systemen in der Nähe kritischer Punkte bis hin zur Quantengravitation durch die AdS/CFT-Korrespondenz. Diese Theorien unterliegen starken Einschränkungen, die eine systematische nicht-perturbative Analyse ermöglichen. Konforme Defekte bieten eine kontrollierte Möglichkeit, die Symmetrie zu brechen und neue physikalische Phänomene einzuführen, während wichtige Vorteile der zugrunde liegenden konformen Symmetrie erhalten bleiben. Diese Dissertation untersucht konforme Liniendefekte sowohl im schwachen als auch im starken Kopplungsregimes. Es werden zwei verschiedene Klassen von Modellen untersucht. Wir konzentrieren uns zuerst auf die supersymmetrische Wilson-Linie in N = 4 Super Yang-Mills, die als ideales Testfeld für die Entwicklung innovativer Techniken wie dem analytischen konformen Bootstrap dient. Die zweite Klasse besteht aus magnetische Linien in Yukawa-Modellen, die faszinierende Anwendungen in 3d kondensierten Materiesystemen haben. Diese Systeme haben das Potenzial, Phänomene des Standardmodells in einem Niedrigenergieszenario nachzubilden. / Conformal field theory finds applications across diverse fields, from statistical systems at criticality to quantum gravity through the AdS/CFT correspondence. These theories are subject to strong constraints, enabling a systematic non-perturbative analysis. Conformal defects provide a controlled means of breaking the symmetry, introducing new physical phenomena while preserving crucial benefits of the underlying conformal symmetry. This thesis investigates conformal line defects in both the weak- and strong-coupling regimes. Two distinct classes of models are studied. First, we focus on the supersymmetric Wilson line in N = 4 Super Yang–Mills, which serves as an ideal testing ground for the development of innovative techniques such as the analytic conformal bootstrap. The second class consists of magnetic lines in Yukawa models, which have fascinating applications in 3d condensed-matter systems. These systems have the potential to emulate phenomena observed in the Standard Model in a low-energy setting.

Detta projekt har genomförts under våren 2016 som ett examensarbete för högskole- ingenjörsprogrammet i innovationsteknik och design vid fakulteten för hälsa, natur- och teknikvetenskap på Karlstads universitet. Den största delen av arbetet utfördes på BAE Systems Bofors ABs eftermarknads- avdelning i Karlskoga. Där gjordes intervjuer och observationer för att kartlägga det nuvarande flödet och tillämpa metoder kring ett förbättringsarbete som studerats under projektets förstudie. Förstudien omfattade en stor litteraturunder-sökning kring arbetssätt och metoder för förbättringsarbeten, som sammanfattades i rapportens teoretiska referensram. De metoder som användes under projektet grundades i arbetssätten Lean och Sex Sigma samt den produktutvecklingsprocess som studerats tidigare under utbildningen. Några exempel på metoder som utfördes under projektet var administrativt spagettidiagram, värdeflödesanalys, ABC-analys och brainstorming. Sammanlagt hittades tolv problemområden i eftermarknadsflödet som studerades närmre. Dessa sammanfattades slutligen i en manual tillsammans med en djupare analys varför de olika problemen uppstått, förslag på hur de skulle kunna lösas eller förbättras samt förslag på hur ett eventuellt utslag av ett infört förbättringsarbete skulle kunna mätas. Exempel på ett problemområde som hittades under arbetet och sammanställdes i manualen var att företaget inte arbetade integrerat och behövde prioritera sitt eftermarknadsflöde. I lösningsförslaget förklarades varför företaget skulle ha fördel till att satsa mer på sin eftermarknad och dess flöde, hur viktigt det är att sätta kunden i fokus och att motivera samtliga medarbetare i flödet att arbeta effektivt. Det måttförslag som presenterades tillsammans med detta problemområde var en medarbetarenkät. I slutet av manualen presenterades även en prioritetsordning på de tolv avsnitten, för att företaget skulle ha underlag till att enkelt föra en diskussion om hur ett förbättrings- arbete skulle kunna påbörjas. / The project has been implemented as a thesis of Bachelor of Science in Innovation and Design at the Faculty of Health, Science and Technology at Karlstad University in the spring of 2016. Most of the work has been performed at BAE Systems Bofors AB’s aftermarket section in Karlskoga. The work included interviews and observations to identify the current flow and to apply methods of improvement on it. The feasibility study involved a large literature study on the methods and techniques of improvement, as summarized in the report's theoretical chapter. The methods that were used in the project were found in Lean, Six Sigma and the product development process, all of which were studied earlier in the education. Some examples of methods that were applied in the project were administrative spaghetti diagrams, Value Stream Mapping-analysis, ABC-analysis and brainstorming. A lot of problems were found in the aftermarket flow and twelve of those were more closely studied. These twelve problems were then summarized in a manual along with an in-depth analysis on why the problem had occurred, suggestions on how they could be resolved or improved and proposals on how a possible alteration of an introduced improvement could be measured. One example of problems that were found and gathered in the manual was that the company doesn’t work in an integrated way and need to prioritize the aftermarket flow. The suggested solution was to explain to the company why they would have to spend more resources on the aftermarket flow and motivate all employees that are involved. The solution also explained how important it is to focus on the customer and get the employees in the flow to work more efficiently. At the end of the manual a priority list of the twelve problem areas is presented. This priority list was made so the company more easily could start a discussion about the improvement work and how it could begin.

This thesis examines an approach to directing Mac Wellman and David Lang’s opera, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field; in addition, the paper reflects on my artistic development as a Master of Fine Arts in Directing student in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. As a director I seek a balance between form and content. Similar to Installation Art, I consider the relationship between space/architecture (the stage/theatre) and sculpture, i.e., anything that can be used to create shape: performers, props, scenery, wardrobe, makeup, light, sound, music, language, etc. As a deviser, not a dictator, the success of my work depends greatly on interdisciplinary collaboration and strategies that promote understanding and appreciation among both artists and audiences. My aim is to create structures for formal elements that when arranged uniquely and sophisticatedly have the ability to provoke emotion, thought, and memory in vivid and compelling ways. This paper explores selected stages of directing The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, the strategies that I employed, and concludes with an artistic statement. / text

<p>In this case study research project I have determined that multidrug sedation in children younger than eight years are possible.<br /> Conscious sedation [or sedation where verbal contact with the patient is possible] can be used successfully to decrease anxiety and fear for unpleasant experiences, like dental procedures.</p> <p><br /> Behaviour therapy in conjunction with one or more drugs can be used to depress the central nervous system in order to decrease the patient&rsquo / s awareness of unpleasant stimuli. This enables treatment to be carried out without patient interference. Extensive literature surveys were done to determine the ideal drugs as well as the ideal route for conscious sedation in dental treatment for children. In this study project drugs like midazolam, propofol, alfentanyl and ketamine were titrated intravenously to achieve conscious sedation.</p>

Ce mémoire comprend deux volets : une étude théorique et un texte de création littéraire. Dans un premier temps, il s’agir d’étudier le rôle du désir dans la démarche thématique et philosophique employée par l’écrivain Wilson Harris dans son roman The Palace of the Peacock. Ainsi démonterons-nous dans le premier chapitre que Harris se sert – de façon paradoxale – du désir empirique pour faire valoir les limites mêmes de celui-ci. Nous aborderons dans le deuxième chapitre le rapport problématique qu’entretient, chez Harris, la subjectivité féminine avec la subjectivité masculine. En particulier, nous examinerons la représentation de ce rapport sous la forme de métaphores ayant trait à l’environnement et à l’anatomie. Nous avancerons que le caractère problématique que revêt le rapport entre subjectivités féminine et masculine dans le roman est en quelque sorte nécessitée par l’écriture même de Harris. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous prendrons part aux débats sur la poétique qui animent la littérature contemporaine afin de situer notre propre élan vers la création littéraire. En même temps, nous entreprendrons une tentative de récupération de certains des concepts théoriques formulés par Harris, en lien avec notre propre poétique. S’ensuivra notre projet de création littéraire, intitulé HEROISM/EULOGIES, qui constitue le quatrième et dernier chapitre du mémoire. Ce texte, extrait d’un projet d’écriture créative plus vaste, trace les mouvements d’un certain nombre de sujets à travers une Amérique imaginée. / This study contains two parts: a theoretical component and a literary text. The theoretical component discusses desire as a thematic and philosophical methodology in Wilson Harris’s The Palace of the Peacock. Chapter one argues that Harris paradoxically makes use of forms of empirical desire to demonstrate its epistemological limits. Chapter two discusses the problematic situation of female subjectivity in relation to male subjects, through environmental and anatomic metaphors, which Harris’s writing necessitates. Chapter three discusses contemporary poetics in order to situate my impetus for literary writing and attempts to salvage some of Harris’s theoretical concepts in dialogue with my own poetics. Chapter four contains the creative writing project, HEROISM/EULOGIES—an excerpt from a larger project—that charts the movement of various subjects across an imagined American landscape.

Contemporary operatic scenography has been undergoing broad aesthetic, theatrical and technological transformations. My dissertation analyzes the work of three key designer-directors—Robert Wilson, Achim Freyer, and Karl-Ernst Herrmann—in order to investigate the changing relationship between the visual and the theatrical in contemporary opera, as well as opera’s place within current trends in theatrical design and broader visual culture. Combining an analysis of current productions with wide-ranging archival research, I reconstruct and explore these artists’ individual stylistic development and their mutual influence. Through this focus on the hybrid figure of the contemporary designer-director, I address two key historical changes in operatic culture: first, the greatly increased importance of scenography and visuality in global opera and second, the emergence of new scenographic idioms, which have rapidly displaced the dominance of historicist and realist conventions in staging. Throughout, I show how Wilson, Freyer, and Herrmann’s work has been central to the development of a “new international style” in operatic scenography. Combining close visual analysis with historical contextualization, I examine how this style—characterized by abstraction, rich colors, striking lighting and radical theatrical effects—has transformed the look of opera, while also framing these developments within the longer history of modernist scenography, and the long-standing tensions between stylistic innovation and aesthetic traditionalism.