Influence of rurality, deprivation and distance from clinic on uptake in men invited for abdominal aortic aneurysm screening

Acknowledgements This study received no specific funding. The study involved the analysis of data collected routinely as part of the national AAA screening programme in Scotland.

The Hybrid Spirit Animating Chinese Pentecostals in Malaysia

This dissertation interrogates the assertion in postcolonial scholarship, especially from the work of Homi Bhabha that the construction and performance of hybrid identities act as a form of resistance for marginalized communities against structures of oppression. While this study supports this assertion, it also critiques how hybridity fails to address issues of unequal power relations. This has led to an uncritical use of hybridity that reproduces the very idea of static identity which its proponents claim to transcend. Through qualitative study of Chinese members of a Pentecostal church in Malaysia, this study argues that church members engage in "unequal belonging" where they privilege certain elements of their identities over others. In concert with Pierre Bourdieu's conceptions of habitus, field, and capital, unequal belonging highlights how hybridity fails to capture the intersecting and competing loyalties, strategies, and complexities of identity formation on a contextual level. Unequal belonging challenges postcolonial scholars to locate the subtle workings of power and privilege that manifest even among marginalized communities. The study first situates the Chinese through an analysis of the historical legacy of British colonialism that has structured the country's current socio-political configuration along bounded categories of identification. The habitus constrains church members to accept certain Chinese ethnic markers as "givens." Although they face continuous marginalization, interviewee data demonstrates that church members negotiate their Chineseness and construct a "Modern Chinese" ethnic identity as a strategic move away from Chinese stereotypes. Moreover, conversion to Christianity affords church members access to cultural capital. Yet, it is limited and unequal capital. In particular, the "Chinese Chinese," who church members have demarcated as backward and traditional, are unable to gain access to this capital because they lack fluency in English and knowledge in modern, westernized worldviews. Unequal belonging nuances monolithic conceptions of hybridity. It demonstrates how church members' privilege of Christianity over Chineseness exposes the complex processes of power and privilege that makes westernized-English-speaking Chinese Christians culturally "higher" than non-English-speaking, non-Christian, Chinese. This study provides significant contribution to the complex aspect of hybridity where it is both a site of resistance and oppression.

Structural Analysis with ANSYS on Stone Constructions in the Historical Spanish Heritage

According to the importance of rehabilitation and recovery of Architectural Heritage in the live of people, this paper is aimed to strengthen the traditional methods of stone vaults calculation taking advantage of the technological characteristics of the powerful program ANSYS Workbench. As an example of this, it could find out the possible pathologies that could arise during the construction history of the building. To limit this research, the upper vault of the main chapel of the Santiago parish church in Orihuela -Alicante- is selected as a reference which is a Jeronimo Quijano´s important building work in the XVI century in the Renaissance. Moreover, it is an innovative stone masonry vault that consists of 8 double intercrossed arches with each other and braced by severies. During the seventeenth century there was a lantern in the central cap and it is unknown why it was removed. Its construction could justify the original constructive solution with intercrossed arches that freed the center to create a more enlightened and comfortable presbytery. By similarity with other Quijano’s works, it is considered a small lantern drilling the central spherical cap. It is proposed to carry out a comparative study of it with different architectural solutions from the same period and based on several common parameters such as: a vault of square plant with spherical surround, intercrossed arches, a possible lantern, the dimension of the permitted space, similar states of loads and compact limestone masonry. The three solutions are mainly differentiated by their size and the type of lantern and its comparison lets us know which one is the most resistant and stable. The other two building works maintain some connection with the Quijano's professional scope. It has selected the particular case of the Communion chapel of the Basilica in Elche (a large prismatic lantern with a large cylindrical drum that starts from the own arches and an upper hemispherical dome), for its conservation, its proximity to Orihuela and its implementation during the century XVIII. Finally, a significant Dome Spanish Renaissance complete the selection: a cross vault of the Benavides Chapel of the Saint Francisco Convent in Baeza - Jaén-, designed by Andres of Vandelvira in the sixteenth century (a large hemispherical dome that starts from the own arcs). To simplify the calculation and standardize the work that have to be contrasted, all of them were considered with some similar characteristics: 30 cm constant thickness, the intercrossed arches were specifically analyzed and had identical loads, Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio. Regarding the calculation solutions, in general terms, the compressive stresses predominate, influencing on it the joint collaboration of the filling material on the vault, the vault itself, the thick side walls, the buttresses and the top cover weight . In addition, the three solutions are suitable, being the Orihuela one the safest and the Baeza one the riskiest for its large dimensions. Thus, the idea of intercrossed arches with suitable thickness would allow carry out the heaviest lantern and this would confirm it as a Renaissance architectural typology built in stone.

Collection of Harvard College admission form letter and bills sent to Charles Walker and his son Charles Walker, Jr., 1785-1816

This collection consists primarily of quarter bills and butler's bills from Charles Walker and Charles Walker, Jr.'s years as students at Harvard College, from 1785 to 1789 and from 1815-1816. It includes the following materials from Charles Walker: a form of admission (a printed form letter with manuscript annotations and signatures) from August 1785, quarter bills and butler's bills from 1785 to 1789, and occasional receipts of payment. The documents from Charles Walker, Jr. are less numerous, consisting solely of quarter bills from 1815 and 1816. The bills for father and son include annotations explaining the basis of additional or unusual charges, including fines for absence from lectures and prayers. The form used for the son's quarter bills, issued in 1815 and 1816, separate the amounts owed into the following categories: Steward and Commons, Sizings, Study and Cellar Rent, Instruction, Librarian, Natural History, Episcopal Church, Books, Catalogue and Commencement Dinner, Repairs, Sweepers, Assessments for delinquency in payment of Quarter Bills, Wood, and Fines. All of the bills are printed forms which were then filled out by hand, by either the steward or the butler, and issued to the students. Caleb Gannett was the College steward during both father and son's era. Joshua Paine, William Harris, and Thomas Adams served, successively, as butler during the father's era. Some of the butler's bills are signed by Roger Vose, a student who appears to have been employed by the butler in 1786 and 1787.

A plan of Cambridge Green, 1780 September 14

Small pen-and-ink and watercolor drawing of Cambridge Green created by Harvard senior John Davis, presumably as part of his undergraduate mathematical coursework. The map surveys Cambridge Commons and includes a few rough outlines of College buildings and the Episcopal church, and notes the burying ground, and the roads to Charlestown, Menotomy, the pond, Watertown, and the bridge. The original handwritten text is faded and was annotated with additional text by Davis including the note "[taken in my Senior year at H. College Septr 1780] Surveyed in concert with classmates, Atkins, Hall 1st, Howard, Payne, &c.- J. Davis." There is a note that "Atkins afterwards took the name of Tying." Davis refers to Dudley Atkins Tyng, Joseph Hall, Bezaleel Howard, and Elijah Paine, all members of the Harvard Class of 1781.

Letters from Robert Hallowell Gardiner to his brother-in-law, William Tudor,

Four letters written from Oaklands. One letter from Emma expressing her grief and shock over the death of their father was finished by her husband, who described hearing the news from a friend, and Emma’s subsequent reaction. In other letters, Gardiner offers advice on resolving the elder William Tudor’s debts by selling off assets such as shares in the Boston Athenaeum and in a pew at Trinity Church. In one letter, Gardiner also offers his opinion regarding the prospects of Henry James (Harry) Tudor’s law career.

Letters from William Tudor to John Thornton Kirkland,

Three letters, one in which Tudor suggests persuading the Episcopal Church to send a bishop to reside in Cambridge and establish a divinity professorship as a means to attract students from other states who are wary of Unitarianism. Tudor also makes inquiries regarding the title of Doctor for a Reverend Chaplin and asks about college records of James Otis.

Letter from Fisher Ames to Deborah Ames Shuttleworth, 1805 August 27

One folded sheet containing a two-page letter from Fisher Ames in Dedham, Mass. to his sister "Debby" in Windsor, Vermont. Ames provides updates on the health of his children and individuals in the community, and discusses the summer heat, including mention of the likelihood of dysentery, and his attendance at "Mr. Montagu's Church," referring to the Dedham Episcopal Church presided over by Reverend William Montague.

Popery a complex falsehood: or an attempt to clear and evidence, that it is so, in a lecture had at Harvard College in Cambridge, New England, on May 10th, 1769

The hand-sewn notebook contains a 30-page manuscript draft of the Dudleian lecture delivered by Samuel Mather on May 10, 1769 at Harvard College. The sermon begins with the Biblical text 2 Thess. 11:11, 12. The copy includes a small number of edits and struck-out words. The item has unattached pages and is in fragile condition. The lecture was never published.

A discourse on natural religion: delivered in the chapel of the University in Cambridge, September 3r, 1795, at the lecture founded by the Honourable Paul Dudley, Esqr

The hand-sewn notebook contains a manuscript draft of the Dudleian lecture delivered by Thomas Barnard on September 3, 1795 at Harvard College. The sermon begins with the Biblical text Acts 14-57. The copy includes a small number of edits and struck-out words. The covers are no longer with the item.

The Catholic Identity of Malta after Ten Years of Membership in the European Union: Challenges and Prospects. Occasional Paper 2/2014

Introduction. Ten years have elapsed since Malta’s accession in the European Union. One can still recall vividly the intense and acrimonious campaign prior to the membership referendum and the ensuing electoral victory that confirmed the Nationalist Party (PN) in power under the leadership of Edward Fenech Adami in 2003. In both cases the Maltese voted in favour of entry into the EU. During both exercises in democracy the Maltese were exposed to the rhetoric of both prophets of doom and prophets of plenty. For the former accession meant a loss of national and territorial independence, for the latter it meant the beginning of opportunity for all and, in some cases, the answer to all of Malta’s woes. Now, ten years later, a further appraisal of Malta’s membership and place in the European Union is called for. The purpose of this paper, however, is to reflect upon how this membership has affected the Roman Catholic Church in Malta and what prospects lie ahead for the Catholic community within Maltese society that remains in a state of constant flux on both the social and the religious level. It traces the major events that have accelerated the transformation of Malta into a secular society. The paper describes how these events, together with pressures that are being brought to bear by secular movements upon Maltese society, are profoundly affecting its Catholic identity and redrawing its moral landscape. It also discusses ways and means by which the Catholic Church in Malta can address these challenges and contribute towards the construction of a more humane Maltese society. In order to achieve this, it must first and foremost remain a coherent witness of a faith that is forever alive, dynamic and relevant.

The Catholic Question in Contemporary Portuguese Civil Society: A Case of Muted Vibrancy? CES Papers - Open Forum #14, 2012

The ‘Catholic question’ in contemporary Portugal obliges us to consider whether Catholicism will remain a force in Portuguese associational life in the next century, or whether it faces a future of slow and steady decline. On the one hand, an overall statistical drop of church membership, and the lack of religious practice by almost half of self-identified Roman Catholics, suggests that the future of the Catholic Church in Portugal will probably be very different than the past. On the other hand, the church’s support for democratic processes, the important social services it provides, and its educational establishment, have certainly been a positive factor in Portuguese associational life, and helped the larger process of democratic-regime consolidation since the Carnation Revolution of 1974. This paper suggests that social scientists need to move beyond the lens normally applied to the question of Catholicism in contemporary Europe (i.e. it is a dying, anti-modern, anti-rational, conservative institution), and instead consider the complex interplay of its demographic challenges combined with the popular sources of its theological and spiritual strength, as well as its vital societal contributions, to assess whether or not it will remain a force in Portuguese associational life in the future.