O PREGADOR SILENCIOSO: Ecumenismo no jornal Expositor Cristão (1886-1982)

O jornal Expositor Cristão, órgão oficial da Igreja Metodista no Brasil, nasceu em 1886, com uma proposta que se poderia chamar de ecumênica: seu primeiro nome, Methodista Catholico, revela o desejo de universalidade, confirmado pelo editorial de estréia. Seu criador, o missionário norte-americano John James Ransom, pretendia um veículo de orientação doutrinária que não fosse sectário, em consonância com a tradição wesleyana. Mas o Metodista Católico teve vida curta: em pouco mais de um ano passou a se chamar Expositor Cristão. O campo religioso brasileiro vivia, então, o período da controvérsia apologética, com a inserção do protestantismo de missão, de origem anglo-saxã, em contraposição ao catolicismo romano. O nome do recém-nascido jornal foi mais uma vítima dos embates. Este trabalho se dispôs a avaliar como o jornal tratou a questão do ecumenismo desde esse período até a entrada da Igreja Metodista no CONIC, Conselho Nacional de Igrejas Cristãs, no início da década de 1980. A pesquisa constatou que o anticatolicismo arraigado no metodismo brasileiro em seus primórdios jamais desapareceu por completo. Notou também que o metodismo não esteve imune aos conflitos interdenominacionais existentes no próprio meio evangélico. Em que pese o reconhecido pioneirismo da Igreja Metodista na criação de organismos ecumênicos brasileiros, o ecumenismo sempre enfrentou barreiras internas, mais ou menos explícitas. E o jornal Expositor Cristão, criado para ser um veículo de informação e formação doutrinária, nem sempre comunicou com a necessária clareza qual o significado que a Igreja Metodista confere à palavra ecumenismo e como ela o pratica. Em alguns momentos, a coexistência entre ecumenismo e antiecumenismo no interior do campo metodista não foi trazida à luz dos debates pelo jornal, mas permaneceu oculta por omissões e ambivalências. É o que este trabalho pôde constatar a partir de uma avaliação qualitativa do conteúdo do jornal.(AU)

Accuracy of cornea and lens biometry using anterior segment optical coherence tomography

We assess the accuracy of the Visante anterior segment optical coherence tomographer (AS-OCT) and present improved formulas for measurement of surface curvature and axial separation. Measurements are made in physical model eyes. Accuracy is compared for measurements of corneal thickness (d1) and anterior chamber depth (d2) using-built-in AS-OCT software versus the improved scheme. The improved scheme enables measurements of lens thickness (d 3) and surface curvature, in the form of conic sections specified by vertex radii and conic constants. These parameters are converted to surface coordinates for error analysis. The built-in AS-OCT software typically overestimates (mean±standard deviation(SD)]d1 by +62±4 μm and d2 by +4±88μm. The improved scheme reduces d1 (-0.4±4 μm) and d2 (0±49 μm) errors while also reducing d3 errors from +218±90 (uncorrected) to +14±123 μm (corrected). Surface x coordinate errors gradually increase toward the periphery. Considering the central 6-mm zone of each surface, the x coordinate errors for anterior and posterior corneal surfaces reached +3±10 and 0±23 μm, respectively, with the improved scheme. Those of the anterior and posterior lens surfaces reached +2±22 and +11±71 μm, respectively. Our improved scheme reduced AS-OCT errors and could, therefore, enhance pre- and postoperative assessments of keratorefractive or cataract surgery, including measurement of accommodating intraocular lenses. © 2007 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Advances towards a pressurised rotating fluidised bed combustor

Rotating fluidised Beds offer the potential for high intensity combustion, large turndown and extended range of fluidising velocity due to the imposition of an artificial gravitational field. Low thermal capacity should also allow rapid response to load changes. This thesis describes investigations of the validity of these potential virtues. Experiments, at atmospheric pressure, were conducted in flow visualisation rigs and a combustor designed to accommodate a distributor 200mm diameter and 80mm axial length. Ancillary experiments were conducted in a 6" diameter conventional fluidised bed. The investigations encompassed assessment of; fluidisation and elutriation, coal feed requirements, start-up and steady-state combustion using premixed propane and air, transition from propane to coal combustion and mechanical design. Assessments were made of an elutriation model and some effects of particle size on the combustion of premixed fuel gas and air. The findings were: a) more reliable start-up and control methods must be developed. Combustion of premixed propane and air led to severe mechanical and operating problems. Manual control of coal combustion was inadequate. b) Design criteria must encompass pressure loss, mechanical strength and high temperature resistance. The flow characteristics of ancillaries and the distributor must be matcheo. c) Fluidisation of a range of particle sizes was investigated. New correlations for minimum fluidisation and fully supported velocities are proposed. Some effects on elutriation of particle size and the distance between the bed surface and exhaust port have been identified. A conic distributor did not aid initial bed distribution. Furthermore, airflow instability was encountered with this distributor shape. Future use of conic distributors is not recommended. Axial solids mixing was found to be poor. A coal feeder was developed which produced uniform fuel distribution throughout the bed. The report concludes that small scale inhibits development of mechanical design and exploration of performance. future research requires larger combustors and automatic control.

Effects of pixel noise and stimulus structure on visual detection performance

This thesis consisted of two major parts, one determining the masking characteristics of pixel noise and the other investigating the properties of the detection filter employed by the visual system. The theoretical cut-off frequency of white pixel noise can be defined from the size of the noise pixel. The empirical cut-off frequency, i.e. the largest size of noise pixels that mimics the effect of white noise in detection, was determined by measuring contrast energy thresholds for grating stimuli in the presence of spatial noise consisting of noise pixels of various sizes and shapes. The critical i.e. minimum number of noise pixels per grating cycle needed to mimic the effect of white noise in detection was found to decrease with the bandwidth of the stimulus. The shape of the noise pixels did not have any effect on the whiteness of pixel noise as long as there was at least the minimum number of noise pixels in all spatial dimensions. Furthermore, the masking power of white pixel noise is best described when the spectral density is calculated by taking into account all the dimensions of noise pixels, i.e. width, height, and duration, even when there is random luminance only in one of these dimensions. The properties of the detection mechanism employed by the visual system were studied by measuring contrast energy thresholds for complex spatial patterns as a function of area in the presence of white pixel noise. Human detection efficiency was obtained by comparing human performance with an ideal detector. The stimuli consisted of band-pass filtered symbols, uniform and patched gratings, and point stimuli with randomised phase spectra. In agreement with the existing literature, the detection performance was found to decline with the increasing amount of detail and contour in the stimulus. A measure of image complexity was developed and successfully applied to the data. The accuracy of the detection mechanism seems to depend on the spatial structure of the stimulus and the spatial spread of contrast energy.

Hydrologic unit map--1974, State of New Jersey.

Scale 1:500,000; 1 in. equals approx. 8 miles.

State of New Jersey /

Scale 1:500,000; 1 in. equals approx. 8 miles.

State of New Jersey /

Scale 1:500,000; 1 in. equals approx. 8 miles.

A barreira de contacto em sujeitos toxicodependentes, através da sua expressão no Rorschach

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Clínica.

Geometrical Methods in Multivariate Risk Management: Algorithms and Applications

This thesis builds a framework for evaluating downside risk from multivariate data via a special class of risk measures (RM). The peculiarity of the analysis lies in getting rid of strong data distributional assumptions and in orientation towards the most critical data in risk management: those with asymmetries and heavy tails. At the same time, under typical assumptions, such as the ellipticity of the data probability distribution, the conformity with classical methods is shown. The constructed class of RM is a multivariate generalization of the coherent distortion RM, which possess valuable properties for a risk manager. The design of the framework is twofold. The first part contains new computational geometry methods for the high-dimensional data. The developed algorithms demonstrate computability of geometrical concepts used for constructing the RM. These concepts bring visuality and simplify interpretation of the RM. The second part develops models for applying the framework to actual problems. The spectrum of applications varies from robust portfolio selection up to broader spheres, such as stochastic conic optimization with risk constraints or supervised machine learning.