Six months in Bible lands, and, Around the world in fourteen months /

Includes index.

Historia della sacra religione militare di S. Giovanni Gerosolimitano detta di Malta /

Imperfect, v. 2: p. 393-400 wanting; p. 337-344 repeated.

Golden gleanings : comprising poems and prose extracts from the writings of M.S. Newcomer.

War lyrics -- Humorous and satirical -- Moral and religious -- Miscellaneous.

Deceleration affects anticipatory and reactive components of triggered postural responses

Understanding the physiological and psychological factors that contribute to healthy and pathological balance control in man has been made difficult by the confounding effects of the perturbations used to test balance reactions. The present study examined how postural responses were influenced by the acceleration-deceleration interval of an unexpected horizontal translation. Twelve adult males maintained balance during unexpected forward and backward surface translations with two different acceleration-deceleration intervals and presentation orders (serial or random). SHORT perturbations consisted of an initial acceleration (peak acceleration 1.3 m s(-2); duration 300 ms) followed 100 ms later by a deceleration. LONG perturbations had the same acceleration as SHORT perturbations, followed by a 2-s interval of constant velocity before deceleration. Surface and intra-muscular electromyography (EMG) from the leg, trunk, and shoulder muscles were recorded along with motion and force plate data. LONG perturbations induced larger trunk displacements compared to SHORT perturbations when presented randomly and larger EMG responses in proximal and distal muscles during later (500-800 ms) response intervals. During SHORT perturbations, activity in some antagonist muscles was found to be associated with deceleration and not the initial acceleration of the support surface. When predictable, SHORT perturbations facilitated the use of anticipatory mechanisms to attenuate early (100-400 ms) EMG response amplitudes, ankle torque change and trunk displacement. In contrast, LONG perturbations, without an early deceleration effect, did not facilitate anticipatory changes when presented in a predictable order. Therefore, perturbations with a short acceleration-deceleration interval can influence triggered postural responses through reactive effects and, when predictable with repeated exposure, through anticipatory mechanisms.

Dominance hierarchies and health: Constructing personal zones of spiritual power and healing in modern medicine

Ethological studies of animals in groups and sociobiology indicate that hierarchies of dominance amongst some species ensure the survival of the group. When transferred to human groups, dominance hierarchies suggest a crucial role played by recasting the scope of such hierarchies of dominant and subordinate members to included hyper-dominant beings. A recognition of such beings as even more dominant than the socially dominant members of a hierarchy facilitates the empowerment of the socially subordinate members. Religious belief and practice works to establish such hyper-dominant beings (gods, goddesses, and so forth) as superior members of human groups. Doing so is a means of ensuring the survival of the species and, thus, enhancing healing and human health. The doctor-patient relationship is examined from such a point of view, with an emphasis on whether the hierarchy created by the relationship allows consideration of alternative and complementary forms of medical treatment.

Vibrational dynamics and structure of natural feldspars

The present study gives a contribution to the knowledge on the Na-feldspar and plagioclases, extending the database of the Raman spectra of plagioclases with different chemical compositions and structural orders. This information may be used for the future planetary explorations by “rovers”, for the investigation of ceramics nanocrystal materials and for the mineralogical phase identification in sediments. Na-feldspar and plagioclase solid solution have been investigated by Raman spectroscopy in order to determine the relationships between the vibrational changes and the plagioclase crystal chemistry and structure. We focused on the Raman micro-spectroscopy technique, being a non-destructive method, suited for contactless analysis with high spatial resolution. Chemical and structural analyses have been performed on natural samples to test the usefulness of Raman spectroscopy as a tool in the study of the pressure-induced structural deformations, the disordering processes due to change in the Al-Si distribution in the tetrahedral sites and, finally, in the determination of the anorthitic content (Anx) in plagioclase minerals. All the predicted 39 Ag Raman active modes have been identified and assigned to specific patterns of atomic vibrational motion. A detailed comparison between experimental and computed Raman spectra has been performed and previous assignments have been revised, solving some discrepancies reported in recent literature. The ab initio calculation at the hybrid HF/DFT level with the WC1LYP Hamiltonian has proven to give excellent agreement between calculated and experimentally measured Raman wavenumbers and intensities in triclinic minerals. A short digression on the 36 infrared active modes of Na-feldspar has been done too. The identification of all 39 computed Raman modes in the experimentally measured spectra of the fully ordered Na-feldspar, known as low albite, along with the detailed description of each vibrational mode, has been essential to extend the comparative analysis to the high pressure and high temperature structural forms of albite, which reflect the physical–chemical conditions of the hosting rocks. The understanding of feldspar structure response to pressure and temperature is crucial in order to constrain crustal behaviour. The compressional behaviour of the Na-feldspar has been investigated for the first time by Raman spectroscopy. The absence of phase transitions and the occurrence of two secondary compression mechanisms acting at different pressures have been confirmed. Moreover, Raman data suggest that the internal structural changes are confined to a small pressure interval, localized around 6 GPa, not spread out from 4 to 8 GPa as suggested by previous X-rays studies on elasticity. The dominant compression mechanisms act via tetrahedral tilting, while the T-O bond lengths remain nearly constant at moderate compressional regimes. At the spectroscopic level, this leads to the strong pressure dependencies of T-O-T bending modes, as found for the four modes at 478, 508, 578 and 815 cm-1. The Al-Si distribution in the tetrahedral sites affects also the Raman spectrum of Na-feldspar. In particular, peak broadening is more sensitive than peak position to changes in the degree of order. Raman spectroscopy is found to be a good probe for local ordering, in particular being sensitive to the first annealing steps, when the macroscopic order parameter is still high. Even though Raman data are scattered and there are outliers in the estimated values of the degree of order, the average peak linewidths of the Na-feldspar characteristic doublet band, labelled here as υa and υb, as a function of the order parameter Qod show interesting trends: both peak linewidths linearly increase until saturation. From Qod values lower than 0.6, peak broadening is no more affected by the Al-Si distribution. Moreover, the disordering process is found to be heterogeneous. SC-XRD and Raman data have suggested an inter-crystalline inhomogeneity of the samples, i.e., the presence of regions with different defect density on the micrometric scale. Finally, the influence of Ca-Na substitution in the plagioclase Raman spectra has been investigated. Raman spectra have been collected on a series of well characterized natural, low structural plagioclases. The variations of the Raman modes as a function of the chemical composition and the structural order have been determined. The number of the observed Raman bands at each composition gives information about the unit-cell symmetry: moving away from the C1 structures, the number of the Raman bands enhances, as the number of formula units in the unit cell increases. The modification from an “albite-like” Raman spectrum to a more “anorthite-like” spectrum occurs from sample An78 onwards, which coincides with the appearance of c reflections in the diffraction patterns of the samples. The evolution of the Raman bands υa and υb displays two changes in slope at ~An45 and ~An75: the first one occurs between e2 and e1 plagioclases, the latter separates e1 and I1 plagioclases with only b reflections in their diffraction patterns from I1 and P1 samples having b and c reflections too. The first variation represents exactly the e2→e1 phase transitions, whereas the second one corresponds in good approximation to the C1→I1 transition, which has been determined at ~An70 by previous works. The I1→P1 phase transition in the anorthite-rich side of the solid solution is not highlighted in the collected Raman spectra. Variations in peak broadening provide insights into the behaviour of the order parameter on a local scale, suggesting an increase in the structural disorder within the solid solution, as the structures have to incorporate more Al atoms to balance the change from monovalent to divalent cations. All the information acquired on these natural plagioclases has been used to produce a protocol able to give a preliminary estimation of the chemical composition of an unknown plagioclase from its Raman spectrum. Two calibration curves, one for albite-rich plagioclases and the other one for the anorthite-rich plagioclases, have been proposed by relating the peak linewidth of the most intense Raman band υa and the An content. It has been pointed out that the dependence of the composition from the linewidth can be obtained only for low structural plagioclases with a degree of order not far away from the references. The proposed tool has been tested on three mineralogical samples, two of meteoric origin and one of volcanic origin. Chemical compositions by Raman spectroscopy compare well, within an error of about 10%, with those obtained by elemental techniques. Further analyses on plagioclases with unknown composition will be necessary to validate the suggested method and introduce it as routine tool for the determination of the chemical composition from Raman data in planetary missions.

Carisma e poder no discurso religioso: um estudo do legado de Masaharu Taniguchi A Seicho-No-Ie no Brasil

A inserção das novas religiões japonesas no Brasil, entre elas a Seicho-No-Ie, está diretamente ligada à imigração japonesa, iniciada em 1908. Esses imigrantes trouxeram com eles cosmovisões e práticas religiosas, que faziam parte de um antigo e rico legado cultural. No Japão, o surgimento dessas novas religiões se deu, principalmente, em decorrência da Restauração Meiji (1868-1912), um período de modernização daquele país. Nessa época apareceram a Oomoto, Tenrikyô, Soka Gakkai, Igreja Messiânica Mundial e a Seicho-No-Ie. Masaharu Taniguchi (1893-1985) fundou a Seicho-No-Ie em 1930, um movimento filosófico-religioso, cujo nome significa lar do progredir infinito . A sua base doutrinária está fundamentada nas tradições budistas e xintoístas mescladas, posteriormente, com preceitos do cristianismo. O fato fundante dessa nova religião são as revelações que Taniguchi afirma ter recebido de uma divindade xintoísta. Foi, no entanto, a divulgação de seus ensinamentos, por meio de uma revista, que deu início à sua expansão no Japão e depois em várias partes do mundo. Taniguchi foi um líder profético e carismático, que instaurou um sistema de dominação simbólica peculiar, mas passível de ser analisada à luz das teorias de Max Weber e Pierre Bourdieu. O processo de institucionalização tomou a família Taniguchi como o modelo ideal, articulando-se a partir dela um sistema de dominação misto de patriarcal, carismático e burocrático. Assim se formou um legado, inicialmente inspirado na tradição imperial japonesa, em que o papel feminino está subordinado à ordem androcêntrica. Esse fator privilegiou a sucessão do Mestre Taniguchi por seu genro, Seicho Arachi, que adotou o sobrenome do sogro e, anos mais tarde, se reproduziu na ascensão do primogênito do casal Seicho e Emiko, Masanobu Taniguchi. No Brasil, os imigrantes japoneses, já no início dos anos 30, descobriram a Seicho-No-Ie, graças ao recebimento do mensário editado no Japão por Taniguchi. Foi, entretanto, o trabalho missionário dos irmãos Daijiro e Miyoshi Matsuda, imigrantes japoneses no Brasil, que a Seicho-No-Ie aqui se estabeleceu e se desenvolveu, obtendo o seu reconhecimento oficial como filial da sede japonesa, em 30/05/51. Inicialmente a Seicho-No-Ie se restringiu às fronteiras étnicas e culturais da colônia japonesa, porém, a partir de 1960, passou a atrair brasileiros, enquanto buscava aculturar as suas atividades doutrinárias. Busca-se neste estudo descrever a organização assumida no Brasil pela Seicho-No-Ie, a sua estrutura doutrinária e administrativa, apresentando-as como uma reprodução da Sede Internacional situada no Japão. Procuramos valorizar o discurso religioso da Seicho-No-Ie contido nos livros e revistas publicados, e atualmente, em programas de televisão. Acreditamos serem esses meios, ao lado dos ensinamentos transmitidos por um seleto corpo de preletores, as principais formas de reprodução desse legado que Masaharu Taniguchi deixou aos seus seguidores, japoneses, brasileiros e de outras nacionalidades.

RECOMPOSIÇÕES IDENTITÁRIAS NA INTEGRAÇÃO RELIGIOSA E CULTURAL DA IGREJA MESSIÂNICA NO BRASIL

Esta pesquisa fundamenta-se na análise da integração religiosa e cultural da Igreja Messiânica Mundial (IMM) no Brasil e suas recomposições identitárias. A exploração do seu universo simbólico é tida como uma das chaves para a compreensão da identidade messiânica. O emblema da igreja é símbolo da cultura cruzada e harmonia entre diferentes. No Brasil, em especial, o Solo Sagrado de Guarapiranga é expressão do Paraíso Terrestre, próposito maior da mensagem messiânica da IMM. Devido à sua peculiaridade como religião de origem japonesa pouco familiar ao público brasileiro, são apresentadas algumas tendências constituintes (autóctones, xamânicas, de crenças populares, xintoístas, confucionistas e hindu-budistas) e conceitos messiânicos tendo em vista sua relevância no processo de construção da identidade messiânica brasileira. Conforme a natureza dos conceitos, optou-se por uma visão comparada entre a Igreja Messiânica e outras novas religiões japonesas (NRJ) como a Mahikari, Perfeita Liberdade, Seicho-no-Ie e Tenrikyo. No concernente à reencarnação, em especial, a visão comparada com o Espiritismo possibilitou aproximações com a religiosidade brasileira. A partir da contextualização histórica e compreensão da adoção da nomenclatura messiânica , foram abordadas as concepções de espírito da palavra , ultra-religião , purificação e doença , benefícios materiais , autocultivo bem como as várias dimensões da experiência religiosa brasileira: ecológica, inter-religiosa, artística e messiânica no sentido estrito do termo. A concepção de ultra-religião de Meishu-Sama (nome religioso de Mokiti Okada, 1882-1955), sobretudo, necessita ser compreendida à luz da trajetória de consolidação da religião em um contexto peculiar do Japão do início do século XX. Antes de fundar a religião messiânica, Okada transitou no mundo das artes, dos negócios, editorial, e por fim ideológico-religioso em seu contato com a religião Oomoto e outras expressões religiosas que pululavam no Japão no período de entre-guerras. O processo dinâmico de interação de tendências diversas, característico das NRJ, em contato com a religiosidade brasileira impulsiona uma série de ressignificações sincréticas nipo-brasileira marcada por processos criativos singulares. A ênfase na figura do Messias Meishu-Sama, a prática do sonen e a criação da teologia messiânica são alguns dos elementos fundamentais da mais recente recomposição identitária da religião no país. Diante das sucessivas transformações das abordagens institucionais e da introdução de múltiplas dimensões da vivência messiânica, a construção identitária da IMM, que abrange aspectos religiosos e ultra-religiosos , torna-se cada vez mais complexa e multifacetada.(AU)