Portuguese Vaulting System at the Dawn and Early Modern Period. Between tradition and Innovation

Portuguese Vaulting System at the Dawn and Early Modern Period. Between tradition and Innovation. III International Congress on Construction History . Brandenburg university of technology Cottbus, Germany. Colab: Soraya Genin, Krista de Jonge.

Notae latinae; an account of abbreviation in Latin mss. of the early minuscule period (c. 700-850)

"List of mss used": p. [444]-494.

Impact of mycophenolate mofetil loading on drug exposure in the early posttransplant period

Achieving adequate therapeutic levels of immunosuppressive medications is important in rejection prevention. This study examined exposure to mycophenolic acid (MPA) in kidney transplant patients within the first 5 days posttransplantation. Methods. This single-center, nonrandomized study of first solitary kidney allograft recipients receiving cyclosporine (n = 116) or tacrolimus (n = 50) included patients who received either 1 g or 1.5 g of mycophenolate mofetil twice daily starting postoperatively. Exposure to MPA was measured at days 3 and 5 posttransplant using published limited sampling time equations. Results. There were no significant differences in exposure in the cyclosporine-treated patients receiving 3-g (n = 22) compared to 2-g (n = 94) daily doses (AUC([0-12]) 33.8 +/- 10.0 mg*h/L versus 30.1 +/- 9.7 mg*h/L, P =.20, respectively). About half the patients in both groups had AUC([0-12]) < 30 mg*h/L on days 3 and 5 posttransplant. On the other hand, there was significantly greater exposure on day 3 in the tacrolimus-treated patients receiving 3 g (n = 21) compared to 2 g (n = 29) daily (AUC([0-12]) 43.1 +/- 9.0 mg*h/L versus 36.8 +/- 11.1 mg*h/L, P =.016, respectively). On day 3 one (4.8%) patient receiving 3 g had an AUC([0-12]) of < 30 mg*h/L; whereas, eight (27.5%) receiving 2 g were below this level (P =.068). The AUC([0-12]) levels were not different on day 5. Conclusions. Loading with higher doses of mycophenolate mofetil results in greater exposure and a trend toward more patients in the therapeutic window within the first week for tacrolimus- but not for cyclosporine-treated patients.

Beyond the Convent Walls: The Local and Japan-wide Activities of Daihongan’s Nuns in the Early Modern Period (c. 1550–1868)

This dissertation examines the social and financial activities of Buddhist nuns to demonstrate how and why they deployed Buddhist doctrines, rituals, legends, and material culture to interact with society outside the convent. By examining the activities of the nuns of the Daihongan convent (one of the two administrative heads of the popular pilgrimage temple, Zenkōji) in Japan’s early modern period (roughly 1550 to 1868) as documented in the convent’s rich archival sources, I shed further light on the oft-overlooked political and financial activities of nuns, illustrate how Buddhist institutions interacted with the laity, provide further nuance to the discussion of how Buddhist women navigated patriarchal sectarian and secular hierarchies, and, within the field of Japanese history, give voice to women who were active outside of the household unit around which early modern Japanese society was organized.

Zenkōji temple, surrounded by the mountains of Nagano, has been one of Japan’s most popular pilgrimage sites since the medieval period. The abbesses of Daihongan, one Zenkōji’s main sub-temples, traveled widely to maintain connections with elite and common laypeople, participated in frequent country-wide displays of Zenkōji’s icon, and oversaw the creation of branch temples in Edo (now Tokyo), Osaka, Echigo (now Niigata), and Shinano (now Nagano). The abbesses of Daihongan were one of only a few women to hold the imperially sanctioned title of eminent person (shōnin 上人) and to wear purple robes. While this means that this Pure Land convent was in some ways not representative of all convents in early modern Japan, Daihongan’s position is particularly instructive because the existence of nuns and monks in a single temple complex allows us to see in detail how monastics of both genders interacted in close quarters.

This work draws heavily from the convent’s archival materials, which I used as a guide in framing my dissertation chapters. In the Introduction I discuss previous works on women in Buddhism. In Chapter 1, I briefly discuss the convent’s history and its place within the Zenkōji temple complex. In Chapter 2, I examine the convent’s regular economic bases and its expenditures. In Chapter 3, I highlight Daihongan’s branch temples and discuss the ways that they acted as nodes in a network connecting people in various areas to Daihongan and Zenkōji, thus demonstrating how a rural religious center extended its sphere of influence in urban settings. In Chapter 4, I discuss the nuns’ travels throughout the country to generate new and maintain old connections with the imperial court in Kyoto, confraternities in Osaka, influential women in the shogun’s castle, and commoners in Edo. In Chapter 5, I examine the convent’s reliance upon irregular means of income such as patronage, temple lotteries, loans, and displays of treasures, and how these were needed to balance irregular expenditures such as travel and the maintenance or reconstruction of temple buildings. Throughout the dissertation I describe Daihongan’s inner social structure comprised of abbesses, nuns, and administrators, and its local emplacement within Zenkōji and Zenkōji’s temple lands.

Exploring these themes sheds light on the lives of Japanese Buddhist nuns in this period. While the tensions between freedom and agency on the one hand and obligations to patrons, subordination to monks, or gender- and status-based restrictions on the other are important, and I discuss them in my work, my primary focus is on the nuns’ activities and lives. Doing so demonstrates that nuns were central figures in ever-changing economic and social networks as they made and maintained connections with the outside world through Buddhist practices and through precedents set centuries before. This research contributes to our understanding of nuns in Japan’s early modern period and will participate in and shape debates on the roles of women in patriarchal religious hierarchies.

Diabolical Witches or Sinful Princes? “Political” Foundations of Demonological Skepticism in the Early Modern Period

Skepticism regarding witchcraft, characteristic (but not exclusive) of the Spanish lands, corresponds with a particular view of evil’s etiology. Whereas paradigmatic texts of radical demonology, as the Malleus Maleficarum, gave a conclusive step towards the demonization of natural evil (as they put the blame on the devil and the witches for calamities and plagues), texts of Castilian origin, as Alonso de Espina’s Fortalitium fidei, embraced the traditional position: they considered the devil as a promoter of moral evil in the world, meanwhile natural evil is seen as a result of the wrath of God for the sins of His people –particularly, the sin of Christian princes. I argue that the distinction between these two ways of thinking the causality of the world’s misfortunes can be read in political terms.

Long-term community responses to droughts in the early modern period: the case study of Terrassa, Spain

New challenges posed by global environmental change have motivated scholars to pay growing attention to historical long-term strategies to deal with climate extremes. We aim to understand long-term trends in community responses to cope with droughts, to explain how many preindustrial societies coevolved with local hydro-climatic dynamics and coped with climate extremes over time. The specific goals of this work are: (1) to analyze how local communities experienced droughts over long periods of time and (2) to document the spectrum of recorded community responses to drought. Our research covers over one century (1605-1710) of responses to drought in the community of Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain. Data were collected through archival research. We reviewed and coded 2076 village council minutes. Our results show that the local community adopted a mixture of symbolic, institutional, and infrastructural responses to drought and that drought-related decisions varied through time. We discuss adaptation strategies on the basis of the distinct physical signals of drought propagation and the role of nonclimatic historical factors, such as warfare and public debt, in shaping responses. We conclude that long-term perspectives on premodern history and comparable empirical studies are fundamental to advance our understanding of past social responses to hydro-climatic extremes.

La inserción social del indígena en las urbes y campañas del territorio bonaerense y su relación con la justicia criminal hispanocriolla durante el período independiente temprano (1810-1835)

La sociedad bonaerense del período independiente temprano, no sólo se caracterizó por estar fuertementejerarquizada desde el punto de vista socioeconómico, sinoademás por ser legalmente desigual y altamente punitiva. Los hechos asentados en los expedientes judiciales correspondientes a causas criminales y correccionales presentadas ante el Juzgado del Crimen, muestran claramente -entre otros aspectos- las características de la justicia criminal hispanocriolla: cómo operaba y se administraba la ley vigente, frente a la cual, los sectores bajos de la pirámide social y en particular, los individuos de casta (indios, negros, morenos, etc.), resultaban ser los más desprotegidos y vulnerables. Por lo tanto, en el presente proyecto, nos interesa abordar la inserción social del indígena en las urbes y campañas, y su integración en el mercado laboral de la época, y a partir de este marco y desde esa sociedad que lo incluía, se pretende indagar alindígena frente al delito y dentro de la dinámica del campo judicial, articulando las dimensiones social, económica y jurídica. De esta manera, combinando las fuentes judiciales de 1810 a 1835 con otros documentos del período, se intenta dar cuenta no sólo de los aspectos sociales y económicos de la vida personal y cotidiana del indígena sino además de las particularidades del proceso de juzgamiento y penalización de sus acciones durante el incipiente período independentista.

La inserción social del indígena en las urbes y campañas del territorio bonaerense y su relación con la justicia criminal hispanocriolla durante el período independiente temprano (1810-1835)

La sociedad bonaerense del período independiente temprano, no sólo se caracterizó por estar fuertementejerarquizada desde el punto de vista socioeconómico, sinoademás por ser legalmente desigual y altamente punitiva. Los hechos asentados en los expedientes judiciales correspondientes a causas criminales y correccionales presentadas ante el Juzgado del Crimen, muestran claramente -entre otros aspectos- las características de la justicia criminal hispanocriolla: cómo operaba y se administraba la ley vigente, frente a la cual, los sectores bajos de la pirámide social y en particular, los individuos de casta (indios, negros, morenos, etc.), resultaban ser los más desprotegidos y vulnerables. Por lo tanto, en el presente proyecto, nos interesa abordar la inserción social del indígena en las urbes y campañas, y su integración en el mercado laboral de la época, y a partir de este marco y desde esa sociedad que lo incluía, se pretende indagar alindígena frente al delito y dentro de la dinámica del campo judicial, articulando las dimensiones social, económica y jurídica. De esta manera, combinando las fuentes judiciales de 1810 a 1835 con otros documentos del período, se intenta dar cuenta no sólo de los aspectos sociales y económicos de la vida personal y cotidiana del indígena sino además de las particularidades del proceso de juzgamiento y penalización de sus acciones durante el incipiente período independentista.

La inserción social del indígena en las urbes y campañas del territorio bonaerense y su relación con la justicia criminal hispanocriolla durante el período independiente temprano (1810-1835)

La sociedad bonaerense del período independiente temprano, no sólo se caracterizó por estar fuertementejerarquizada desde el punto de vista socioeconómico, sinoademás por ser legalmente desigual y altamente punitiva. Los hechos asentados en los expedientes judiciales correspondientes a causas criminales y correccionales presentadas ante el Juzgado del Crimen, muestran claramente -entre otros aspectos- las características de la justicia criminal hispanocriolla: cómo operaba y se administraba la ley vigente, frente a la cual, los sectores bajos de la pirámide social y en particular, los individuos de casta (indios, negros, morenos, etc.), resultaban ser los más desprotegidos y vulnerables. Por lo tanto, en el presente proyecto, nos interesa abordar la inserción social del indígena en las urbes y campañas, y su integración en el mercado laboral de la época, y a partir de este marco y desde esa sociedad que lo incluía, se pretende indagar alindígena frente al delito y dentro de la dinámica del campo judicial, articulando las dimensiones social, económica y jurídica. De esta manera, combinando las fuentes judiciales de 1810 a 1835 con otros documentos del período, se intenta dar cuenta no sólo de los aspectos sociales y económicos de la vida personal y cotidiana del indígena sino además de las particularidades del proceso de juzgamiento y penalización de sus acciones durante el incipiente período independentista.

Changes in physical properties of bovine milk from the colostrum period to early lactation

The aim of this study was to analyze individual cows' samples from the colostrum, postcolostrum, and early lactation periods to investigate how milk composition, physical properties, stability, and suitability for processing change throughout this period. Attention was paid to the first week postpartum in which the composition of bovine mammary secretion can change markedly. Properties including pH, titratable acidity, ethanol stability (ES), rennet clotting time, and casein micelle size were analyzed, together with some compositional factors such as fat, total protein, lactose, total and ionic calcium, magnesium, citrate, phosphorus, sodium, and potassium. Total Ca (36.2 mM) and free ionic Ca (2.58 mM), Mg (5.9 mM), P (32.2 mM), and Na (24.1 mM) appeared to be high on d 5 postpartum, having decreased substantially over the first 5 d; they gradually decreased thereafter. The average pH on d 5 was only 6.49, compared with 6.64 at 1 mo postpartum. Stability measurements showed that the average ES on d 5 was 70% and the rennet clotting time was 12.2 min, which were significantly lower than values at later stages. A number of milk properties including ES, pH, protein content, and Ca2+ concentration could be useful for identifying the point of transition from colostrum to the early lactation period. Knowing the composition and physical properties of colostrum and postcolostrum secretions will help establish when such milk is suitable for processing and determine the best use for that milk.