A Damascene Conversion:Additional Accommodation Church of St George and St Thomas

Additional Accommodation Church of St George and St Thomas - Critical Appraisal ‘A Damascene Conversion’ by Shane O’Toole in The Sunday Times December 2008.

The Church of Scotland and the English apocalyptic imagination, 1630-1650

This article explores the evolution of the eschatological identity of the Church of Scotland within the framework of English puritan apocalyptic thought in the period 1630–50. From the beginnings of reformation, English protestant theologians constructed an elaborate series of readings of Biblical apocalyptic texts through which they attempted to understand contemporary events. By the 1630s, English puritan exegetes had begun to identify within the Biblical text a distinctive role for Scottish Presbyterianism. The Scottish church, which, in the opinion of many English puritans, moved towards a more rigorously reformed ecclesiology as the 1630s progressed, was identified as a harbinger of the millennial glory that English puritans would shortly share. But as the relationship between Parliament and Presbytery turned sour, English puritans increasingly identified the Scottish church as the apocalyptic menace that stood in the way of their millennial fulfilment – a feeling made vivid in the rhetoric of the Cromwellian invasion.

The Use of High Surface Area Silica and Supercritical Carbon Dioxide to Enhance Solubility of Poorly Water-Soluble Drugs

Purpose Poor water-solubility of BCS class II drugs can limit their commercialization because of reduced oral bioavailability. It has been reported that loading of drug by adsorption onto porous silica would enhance drug solubility due to the increased surface area available for solvent diffusion. In this work, solid dispersions are formed using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2). The aim of this research was to characterise the solid-state properties of scCO2 dispersion and to investigate the impact of altering scCO2 processing conditions on final amorphous product performance that could lead to enhancement of drug dissolution rate for BCS class II drugs. Methods Indomethacin (IND) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (Dorset, UK) and was used as a model drug with two grades of high surface area silica (average particle sizes 3&[micro] and 7&[micro]), which were obtained directly from Grace-Davison (Germany). Material crystallinity was evaluated using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD, Rigaku™, miniflex II, Japan) and high-speed differential scanning calorimetry (Hyper-DSC 8000, Perkin Elmer, USA). Materials were placed in a high-pressure vessel consisting of a CO2 cylinder, a Thar™ Technologies P50 high-pressure pump and a 750 ml high-pressure vessel (Thar, USA). Physical mixtures were exposed to CO2 gas above its critical conditions. SEM imaging and elemental analysis were conducted using a Jeol 6500 FEGSEM (Advanced MicroBeam Inc., Austria). Drug release was examined using USP type II dissolution tester (Caleva™, UK). Results The two grades of silica were found to be amorphous using PXRD and Hyper-DSC. Using PXRD, it was shown that an increase in incubation time and pressure resulted in a decrease in the crystalline content. Drug release profiles from the two different silica formulations prepared under the same conditions are shown in Figure 1. It was found that there was a significant enhancement in drug release, which was influenced, by silica type and other experiment conditions such as temperature, pressure and exposure time. SEM imaging and elemental analysis showed drug deposited inside silica pores as well as on the outer surface. Conclusion This project has shown that silica carrier platforms may be used as an alternative approach to generating polymeric solid dispersions of amorphous drugs exhibiting enhanced solubility.

Factors predicting the portion size and perceived fillingness of evening meals in Danish and Iris households

Purpose:
This study explored how meal-related variables, socio-demographics and psychological predispositions affect the portion
size and perceived fillingness of an evening meal in Danish and Irish households.
Methods:
Using survey data collected in 2115 respondents from Denmark (DK) and the Island of Ireland (IOI), we compared four
sets of predictors of the portion size chosen for four evening meals (i.e. pizza/soup/chicken salad/pork meal): Biological
variables (hunger, thirst), socio-demographic variables (gender, age, BMI); psychological predispositions (cognitive
restraint, uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, general health interest) and meal-related variables (expected fillingness,
perceived healthiness, liking, frequency of consumption). We also compared five sets of predictors (the previous
four plus portion size) of perceived portion fillingness.
Results:
Portion size selections were associated mainly with demographic variables (gender, BMI) and psychological predispositions
(cognitive restraint, uncontrolled eating). In addition, only liking and sometimes expected healthiness (mealrelated
variables) appeared as drivers. Conversely, perceived portion fillingness was mostly influenced by the selected
portion size as well as expected fillingness and liking. There were some differences between meals; e.g. GHI not a
predictor for Pizza but a predictor for Chicken salad. Also some country differences were observed; emotional eating
predicted portion selection in the IOI but not DK.
Conclusions:
When making portion size selections at home, psychological predispositions, restrained and uncontrolled eating as well
as meal-related variables, liking and healthiness explained the decisions. However, surprisingly, individuals’ expected
fillingness of a food did not influence their portion size selection but was a driver of fillingness of the selected portion.

The Church of the Abandoned Christ: David Peace's 'Red Riding Quartet' and the Wreck of the White Ship

David Peace’s novel Nineteen Seventy-seven concludes with the hack journalist Jack Whitehead being granted a terrifying apocalyptic vision, seconds before he is trepanned with a Phillips screwdriver by the sinister Reverend Martin Laws. Included in this vision is a curious reference to the wreck of the White Ship, a maritime disaster in 1120 that drowned William Atheling, heir to the English throne, and ultimately doomed England to years of civil war. This article explores Peace’s strange use of the shipwreck in his “Red Riding Quartet,” particularly the way he links it—in the quartet’s final volume, Nineteen Eighty Three—to a revisionist account of the aftermath of the crucifixion that leads a wounded Christ to a tragic death in the cold waters of the English Channel.

The Political and Artistic Program of Prince Petru Rares of Moldavia (1527-1538 and 1541-1546) and the Fresco Series Depicting the “Life of the Mother of God” in the Church of Humor Monastery

En 1993, l’église du monastère Humor et six autres églises du nord de la Moldavie (Roumanie) ont été classifiés comme patrimoine de l'UNESCO, en particulier en raison de leurs caractéristiques iconographiques et architecturales uniques. Construit au seizième siècle, le monastère Humor est devenu un riche centre religieux et culturel sous le patronage du prince Petru Rares de Moldavie. Ce centre a encouragé les innovations architecturales ecclésiales, ainsi qu’un programme très prolifique de fresques, extérieures et intérieures, exprimant une créativité au-delà du canon de la peinture de l'époque. La présente thèse est concentrée sur ces innovations architecturales et iconographiques, comprises à la lumière du contexte historique de ce moment unique dans l'histoire de la Moldavie, dans le siècle qui suivit la chute de Constantinople (1453). Tandis que la première partie de la thèse est concentrée sur ces circonstances historiques, et plus précisément sur l'impact du patronage du Prince Rares, la deuxième partie de la recherche est concentrée sur l'analyse des sources littéraires et de la théologie d’une série unique de fresques, placé dans la gropnita (chambre funéraire) de l’église monastique d’Humor, évoquant la vie de la Mère de Dieu. La série est un exemple extraordinaire d’interaction des textes, le Protévangile de Jacques et le Synaxarion, avec l'iconographie. Une attention particulière à l'iconographie du monastère Humor démontre le besoin de la corrélation entre texte et icône d'une part, ainsi que la nécessité d’une corrélation entre les études théologiques, l'art et l’histoire d’autre part. Un autre avantage de la recherche est de contribuer à une appréciation plus riche des trésors culturels et religieux des communautés chrétiennes de l'Europe de l'Est aux points de vue religieux et culturel, en réponse à leur reconnaissance comme patrimoine de l’UNESCO.

Critical Mass: Sermon for the Church of the Atom (part of A Theatre to Address at Arnolfini, Bristol and Late at Tate Britain)

A Theatre to Address explores the work of contemporary artists who use text as both a visual and sonic form. In this programme, text appears not primarily as a means of communication, but as something which has shape and structure of its own. The Reading Room will also be displaying work that looks at text as concrete or visual poetry, and the script in artists' practice. Clare Gasson presents a new work The traveller - walking walking walking through ... that explores the connection between the text, the rhythm and the action. Maryam Jafri presents a performance-lecture Death With Friends, a body of visual and textual material that forms the basis for her new film of the same name. Pil and Galia Kollectiv present a radical worship for the apocalypse, featuring a sermon for the Church of the Atom with live music by Gelbart.