En torno al cardenal Don Gil Álvarez de Albornoz y el platero sienés Andrea Petrucci: el relicario de la mano de Santa Lucía y el cáliz de San Segundo

Este artículo trata de la complicada y hasta ahora inédita historia de la llegada a España de dos obras cumbres de la orfebrería sienesa del s. XIV en plata con esmaltes translúcidos: el relicario de la mano de Santa Lucía en la catedral de Toledo y el cáliz de San Segundo en la catedral de Ávila. La importación de estos dos importantísimos objetos devocionales y litúrgicos, ambos firmados por el platero sienés Andrea Petrucci, está relacionada con la estancia en Italia del cardenal don Gil de Albornoz, arzobispo de Toledo y posteriormente cardenal de San Clemente y Santa Sabina y legado papal. El mecenazgo del cardenal castellano y de su círculo en Italia explica la comisión y adquisición de estas piezas, cuyos accidentados itinerarios desembocarían finalmente en Toledo y en Ávila.

Programació d'una aplicació gràfica per l'anàlisi de senyals usant LDB (Local Discriminant Bases) i MLDB (Modified LDB)

Tot seguit presentem un entorn per analitzar senyals de tot tipus amb LDB (Local Discriminant Bases) i MLDB (Modified Local Discriminant Bases). Aquest entorn utilitza funcions desenvolupades en el marc d’una tesi en fase de desenvolupament. Per entendre part d’aquestes funcions es requereix un nivell de coneixement avançat de processament de senyals. S’han extret dels treballs realitzats per Naoki Saito [3], que s’han agafat com a punt de partida per la realització de l’algorisme de la tesi doctoral no finalitzada de Jose Antonio Soria. Aquesta interfície desenvolupada accepta la incorporació de nous paquets i funcions. Hem deixat un menú preparat per integrar Sinus IV packet transform i Cosine IV packet transform, tot i que també podem incorporar-n’hi altres. L’aplicació consta de dues interfícies, un Assistent i una interfície principal. També hem creat una finestra per importar i exportar les variables desitjades a diferents entorns. Per fer aquesta aplicació s’han programat tots els elements de les finestres, en lloc d’utilitzar el GUIDE (Graphical User Interface Development Enviroment) de MATLAB, per tal que sigui compatible entre les diferents versions d’aquest programa. En total hem fet 73 funcions en la interfície principal (d’aquestes, 10 pertanyen a la finestra d’importar i exportar) i 23 en la de l’Assistent. En aquest treball només explicarem 6 funcions i les 3 de creació d’aquestes interfícies per no fer-lo excessivament extens. Les funcions que explicarem són les més importants, ja sigui perquè s’utilitzen sovint, perquè, segons la complexitat McCabe, són les més complicades o perquè són necessàries pel processament del senyal. Passem cada entrada de dades per part de l’usuari per funcions que ens detectaran errors en aquesta entrada, com eliminació de zeros o de caràcters que no siguin números, com comprovar que són enters o que estan dins dels límits màxims i mínims que li pertoquen.

Governmental Measures to Enhance the Finnish Innovation System to Respond to the Challenge of Mitigating Climate Change

Climate innovations, that cover both technological applications and process and service innovations, play a key role in climate change mitigation. The purpose of this study was to examine how the Finnish innovation system could be enhanced with governmental measures so that the diffusion of climate innovations could be speeded up. During the study, it became evident that the governmental measures need to support the whole innovation chain, which comprises of research, development, demonstration and deployment. Only this can lead to the successful birth and diffusion of low carbon innovations. The study found that the strengths of the Finnish innovation system are research and development, and the current national innovation policies strongly support these activities. However, these have been emphasised at the expense of the demonstration and deployment. Consequently, the biggest bottlenecks in the Finnish innovation landscape are the lack of pilot and demonstration projects and slow commercialisation, thus the high price of the innovation. To meet with the challenge, the government should firstly promote strict greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. This would boost up the innovation activities, which would also lower the prices of the innovations. To speed up the commercialisation process, measures that stimulate the domestic market, such as feed-in-tariffs and public procurements, are needed. Special attention should also be paid to the measures that could shift the traditional closed innovation chain towards open innovation. This means that the product development should involve experts from several fields such as the user and marketing experts to speed up the commercialisation. In addition, efficient innovation co-operation between both private and public sector is essential. Finally, as the domestic resources are not adequate for producing all the innovations needed, the domestic innovation activities should be focused on a few sectors, and at the same time promote efficient import policies.

Energiatiedon hallintajärjestelmän suorituskyvyn määrittäminen ja todentaminen

Sähkömarkkinoiden vapautumisen jälkeen energia-alalle on muodostunut entistä suurempi kysyntä kehittyneille energiatiedon hallintaaan erikoistuneille tietojärjestelmille. Uudet lakisäädökset sekä tulevaisuuden kokonaisvaltaiset tiedonkeruujärjestelmät, kuten älykkäät mittarit ja älykkäät sähköverkot, tuovat mukanaan entistä suuremman prosessoitavan tietovirran. Nykyaikaisen energiatietojärjestelmän on kyettävä vastaamaan haasteeseen ja palveltava asiakkaan vaatimuksia tehokkaasti prosessien suorituskyvyn kärsimättä. Tietojärjestelmän prosessien on oltava myös skaalautuvia, jotta tulevaisuuden lisääntyneet prosessointitarpeet ovat hallittavissa. Tässä työssä kuvataan nykyaikaisen energiatietojärjestelmän keskeiset energiatiedon hallintaan ja varastointiin liittyvät komponentit. Työssä esitellään myös älykkäiden mittareiden perusperiaate ja niiden tuomat edut energia-alalla. Lisäksi työssä kuvataan visioita tulevaisuuden älykkäiden sähköverkkojen toteutusmahdollisuuksista. Diplomityössä esitellään keskeisiä suorituskykyyn liittyviä kokonaisuuksia. Lisäksi työssä kuvataan keskeiset suorituskyvyn mittarit sekä suorituskykyvaatimukset. Järjestelmän suorituskyvyn arvioinnin toteuttamiseen on erilaisia menetelmiä, joista tässä työssä kuvataan yksi sen keskeisine periaatteineen. Suorituskyvyn analysointiin käytetään erilaisia tekniikoita, joista tässä diplomityössä esitellään tarkemmin järjestelmän mittaus. Työssä toteutetaan myös case-tutkimus, jossa analysoidaan mittaustiedon sisääntuontiin käytettävän prosessin kahta eri kehitysversiota ja näiden suorituskykyominaisuuksia. Kehitysversioiden vertailussa havaitaan, että uusi versio on selkeästi edellistä versiota nopeampi. Case-tutkimuksessa määritetään myös suorituskyvyn kannalta optimaalinen rinnakkaisprosessien määrä ja tutkitaan prosessin skaalautuvuutta. Tutkimuksessa todetaan, että uusi kehitysversio skaalautuu lineaarisesti.

POR QUE AGOSTINHO NÃO É UM FILÓSOFO MEDIEVAL (E POR QUE É IMPORTANTE COMPREENDER ISSO)

Agostinho é um filósofo medieval ou um filósofo antigo? Alguns autores defendem que ele é um filósofo medieval porque desempenhou um papel central na absorção da filosofia grega num quadro teórico cristão. Sua importância na constituição do pensamento cristão é sem dúvida enorme, mas não fornece um bom argumento para uma tese sobre a periodização em história da filosofia. Agostinho é um filósofo antigo porque pertence ao mundo antigo, não ao mundo medieval, e esta fronteira histórica corresponde à queda do Império Romano do Ocidente. Os fatos que parecem sustentar ambas as respostas são bem conhecidos, o que deve ser ajustado, portanto, é a pergunta: o que explica modificações amplas pelas quais a filosofia passou ao longo tempo? Os mecanismos envolvidos nessas modificações podem ser compreendidos uma vez que vemos a filosofia como parte da cultura, e parece claro haver uma ruptura muito importante entre os séculos V e XI. Mais interessante do que saber em que período classificar Agostinho é podermos colocar perguntas mais explicativas sobre essas mudanças: como tradições filosóficas nascem e morrem? Minha proposta é utilizar o modelo da epidemiologia da cultura, de Dan Sperber, para responder esta pergunta.

Biopolttoaineiden saatavuus ja hankintalogistiikka Kaakkois-Suomessa

"Biopolttoaineiden saatavuus ja hankintalogistiikka Kaakkois-Suomessa" -hankkeen tavoitteena oli tuottaa ajantasaista ja paikkaan sidottua tietoa energiatuotantoon soveltuvan biomassan saatavuudesta ja biomassapotentiaalin tehokkaan käytön mahdollistavasta logistiikkajärjestelmästä Kaakkois-Suomen alueella. Tarkastelussa mukana olleet polttoaineet eli metsä- ja peltobiomassat sekä turve ovat ns. paikallisia polttoaineita, joiden hankinta tapahtuu maaseudulta, ensisijaisesti mahdollisimman läheltä kutakin käyttöpaikkaa. Hankkeessa tutkittiin mahdollisuuksia lisätä paikallista polttoaineenhankintaa, kuljetusmääriä ja -kalustoa järkevästi 2010-luvulla toteutettavan energiapolitiikan myötä kasvavan polttoainetarpeen puitteissa. Rautatie- ja vesitiekuljetusten hyödyntämistä logistiikassa tutkittiin kahden tapaustutkimuksen avulla. Tutkittavia asioita olivat myös tuotantoketjujen lisääntyvä työvoimatarve sekä maantieteellisesti laajenevan raaka-ainehankinnan kasvihuonekaasupäästöistä aiheutuvat ympäristövaikutukset. Tärkeimpinä tuloksina saatiin tietoa siitä, kuinka laajalle alueelle biopolttoaineiden hankinta eri asiantilojen vallitessa Kaakkois-Suomen alueella ulottuu, ja millaisia hankintalogistiikkaan liittyviä ratkaisuja voidaan ottaa käyttöön alueellisen polttoainepulan muodostuessa. Logistiikan kannalta Kaakkois-Suomen etuja ovat monipuoliset kuljetusverkostot, mutta toisaalta varsinkin hyvät yhteydet ulkomaille rajoittavat paikallisesti investointiaktiivisuutta bioenergian tuotanto- ja käsittelykaluston osalta. Lisäksi maaseudun yrittäjien keskuudessa epävarmuutta aiheuttavat heilahtelevat raakapuumarkkinat ja muuttuva energiatukipolitiikka.

A SECOND OPINION ON RELATIVE TRUTH

In 'An undermining diagnosis of relativism about truth', Horwich claims that the notion of relative truth is either explanatorily sterile or explanatorily superfluous. In the present paper, I argue that Horwich's explanatory demands set the bar unwarrantedly high: given the philosophical import of the theorems of a truth-theoretic semantic theory, Horwich's proposed explananda, what he calls acceptance facts, are too indirect for us to expect a complete explanation of them in terms of the deliverances of a theory of meaning based on the notion of relative truth. And, to the extent that there might be such an explanation in certain cases, there is no reason to expect relative truth to play an essential, ineliminable role, nor to endorse the claim that it should play such a role in order to be a theoretically useful notion.

E-portfoliojärjestelmien vertailu rajapintojen näkökulmasta

Työssä tutustutaan erilaisiin e-portfoliojärjestelmiin, niiden ominaisuuksiin ja toiminnallisuuksiin sekä vertaillaan valittuja e-portfoliojärjestelmiä keskenään yhteensopivuuden ja -toimivuuden näkökulmasta yliopistomaailmassa. Tavoitteena on valita e-portfoliojärjestelmistä monipuolisin ja opiskelijaystävällisin järjestelmä. Järjestelmän tulee tukea opiskelijan elinikäistä oppimista. E-portfolio on sähköisessä muodossa oleva omien töiden kokoelma ja sitä hallitaan e-portfoliojärjestelmällä. E-portfoliojärjestelmissä tärkeässä roolissa ovat portfoliospesifikaatiot, jotka mahdollistavat e-portfolion siirtämisen sellaisenaan toiseen järjestelmään rajapintojen kautta. Työssä ei keskitytä henkilökohtaiseen oppimisympäristöön, joka on käsitteenä laajempi kuin e-portfolio. Työssä vertailtiin avoimeen lähdekoodiin perustuvia, web-pohjaisia e-portfoliojärjestelmiä ja tutkittiin niiden tarjoamaa mahdollisuutta portfolioiden siirtoon ja tuomiseen. Lisäksi tarkasteltiin järjestelmien integroituvuutta muihin järjestelmiin, kuten virtuaalisiin oppimisympäristöihin. Vertailun tuloksena monipuolisin ja opiskelijaystävällisin e-portfoliojärjestelmä on Mahara ja yleisin portfoliospesifikaatio Leap2A.

Finnish Critical Industries, Maritime Transport Vulnerabilities and societal Implications

Maritime transports are very essential for Finland as over 80% of the foreign trade in the country is seaborne and possibilities to carry out these transports by are limited. Any disruption in maritime transports has negative consequences to many sectors in the Finnish economy. Maritime transport thus represents critical infrastructure for Finland. This report focuses on the importance of maritime transports on security of supply in Finland and for the so called critical industries in particular. The report summarizes the results of the Work Package 2 of the research project STOCA – “Study of cargo flows in the Gulf of Finland in emergency situations”. The aim of the research was to analyze the cargo flows and infrastructure that are vital for maintaining security of supply in Finland, as well as the consequences of disruptions in the maritime traffic for the Finnish critical industries and for the Finnish society. In the report we give a presentation of the infrastructure and transport routes which are critical for maintaining security of supply in Finland. We discuss import dependency of the critical industries, and the importance of the Gulf of Finland ports for Finland. We assess vulnerabilities associated with the critical material flows of the critical industries, and possibilities for alternative routings in case either one or several of the ports in Finland would be closed. As a concrete example of a transport disruption we analyze the consequences of the Finnish stevedore strike at public ports (4.3.–19.3.2010). The strike stopped approximately 80% of the Finnish foreign trade. As a result of the strike Finnish companies could not export their products and/or import raw materials, components and spare parts, or other essential supplies. We carried out personal interviews with representatives of the companies in Finnish critical industries to find out about the problems caused by the strike, how companies carried out they transports and how they managed to continue their operations during the strike. Discussions with the representatives of the companies gave us very practical insights about companies’ preparedness towards transport disruptions in general. Companies in the modern world are very vulnerable to transport disruptions because companies regardless of industries have tried to improve their performance by optimizing their resources and e.g. by reducing their inventory levels. At the same time they have become more and more dependent on continuous transports. Most companies involved in foreign trade have global operations and global supply chains, so any disruption anywhere in the world can have an impact on the operations of the company causing considerable financial loss. The volcanic eruption in Iceland in April 2010 stopping air traffic in the whole Northern Europe and most recently the earth quake causing a tsunami in Japan in March 2011 are examples of severe disruptions causing considerable negative impacts to companies’ supply chains. Even though the Finnish stevedore strike was a minor disruption compared to the natural catastrophes mentioned above, it showed the companies’ vulnerability to transport disruptions very concretely. The Finnish stevedore strike gave a concrete learning experience of the importance of preventive planning for all Finnish companies: it made them re-think their practical preparedness towards transport risks and how they can continue with their daily operations despite the problems. Many companies realized they need to adapt their long-term countermeasures against transport disruptions. During the strike companies did various actions to secure their supply chains. The companies raised their inventory levels before the strike began, they re-scheduled or postponed their deliveries, shifted customer orders between production plants among their company’s production network or in the extreme case bought finished products from their competitor to fulfil their customers’ order. Our results also show that possibilities to prepare against transport disruptions differ between industries. The Finnish society as a whole is very dependent on imports of energy, various raw materials and other supplies needed by the different industries. For many of the Finnish companies in the export industries and e.g. in energy production maritime transport is the only transport mode the companies can use due to large volumes of materials transported or due to other characteristics of the goods. Therefore maritime transport cannot be replaced by any other transport mode. In addition, a significant amount of transports are concentrated in certain ports. From a security of supply perspective attention should be paid to finding ways to decrease import dependency and ensuring that companies in the critical industries can ensure the continuity of their operations.

Development of railway logistics’ information flows

Objective of this thesis was to develop the exchange of information and reduce the manual work done in the supply chain. In addition, the possibility to introduce electronic information exchange was studied between suppliers and Borealis. The aim was to create an accurate picture of Borealis’ current information flows and create from the basis of it short- and long-term improvement and development proposals. In this study the company's received and send information flows were mapped by interviewing persons who were responsible for the railroad imports and by examining documents that are used in the exchange of information. The data content of the information flows were prioritized and only the most important information contents were used for further development. Literature data was acquired concerning knowledge of electronic data interchange and information management to support the decisions and proposals. Long-term development proposals were compared with each other and the best one of them was recommended for further study. The final target of the proposal is to be able to receive electronic data and create an own database where to the information is stored and where from it is possible to follow up the rail tank cars and where from the needed reports can be retrieved.

Metsäsääntely Suomessa ja Venäjällä. Näkökulmia kestävään metsätalouteen

Sustainability is the aim of forest management and forest regulation in many countries. Accordingly, forest management has been steered towards more environmentally friendly methods and new regulatory instruments have been introduced. At the same time, wood trade and forest industry have become a global business. Even if the importance of national forest legislation has not decreased, it has been widely acknowledged that national regulation of forest management is no longer sufficient. The movement of goods does not acknowledge boundaries, even though most negative environmental and social consequences stay in the country of origin of wood and other raw materials. As a partial solution to this dilemma, different kinds of regulations have been developed. Various forest certification schemes and wood trade regulation in the EU (995/2010) are examples of efforts to prevent illegal logging and unsustainable forestry. The Finland-based forest industry is to a varying extent dependent on wood trade from Russia. Especially in the 1990‟s, ethical questions concerning import of wood from Russian old growth forests near the Finnish border were widely discussed. Consequently, forest industry enterprises have developed systems to trace the origin of wood and to buy certified wood from Russia. The aim of the research has been to evaluate Finnish and Russian forest regulations in order to investigate what kind of forest management these regulations enhance, and to what extent ecologically sustainable forest management has been integrated into different forms of regulation. I have examined Finnish and Russian forest regulation in four separate articles based on the topics of the Russian Forest Code, forest certification and other voluntary forest protection measures in Russia, Finnish forest certification and Finnish forest legislation. One objective has been to analyse the roles voluntary forest certification plays in promoting sustainable forest management in different countries. In my research, I have mainly concentrated on ecological sustainability and protection of biodiversity, although other aspects of sustainable forest management have been touched upon in different articles. In the following I shall conclude the findings of my research. When the current Russian Forest Code (2006) was being adopted, the main emphasis was not on ecological issues, but on reorganizing forest governance. The role of ecological requirements was even slightly diminished during the legislative reform. There are, nevertheless, still stipulations aiming at ecological sustainability, such as the division of forests into different forest management categories and various protection zones. In 2000, FSC forest certification arrived in Russia, at present covering already 28 million hectares of forests. The PEFC scheme is now in use as well, but to a much lesser extent. If properly implemented, Russian forest certification schemes clearly improve the level of ecological and social sustainability of forestry in Russia. Certification criteria, however, are partly in conflict with the Russian forest legislation and certified enterprises have been forced to pay fines or to negotiate with forest authorities. This clearly indicates that even if Russian forest legislation has otherwise been liberalized to a certain extent, some significant paternalism still exists. Voluntary, hands-on biodiversity protection measures are not valued, and they are not part of the official protection policies as in many other countries. However, there have been some regional solutions to this dilemma. In the Republic of Karelia forest authorities have approved a set of forest biodiversity protection rules created by a local NGO and a forest industry enterprise. By following these local rules, an enterprise can avoid fines for protection measures. The current Finnish Forest Act was adopted in 1996. It brought forest legislation into a new era as some ecological aspects were integrated into forest legislation. The various soft-law forest management recommendations further increased the level of biodiversity protection. My evaluation of the overall legitimacy of the Finnish forest legislation and forest management paradigm revealed, however, several problematic issues. As part of this study I analysed the history of the current forest management paradigm. This analysis revealed the path dependency which still hinders the protection of biodiversity and clearly decreases the general legitimacy of forest management. Due to several historical reasons only even-structured forest management based on clear cuts has for decades been officially approved in Finland. Due to increasing demands of forest owners the legislation is finally being revised. Yet, the official approval of uneven-structured forest management would not be enough to fully improve ecological, social and cultural legitimacy. The latest ecological theories and knowledge of endangered species should be taken into account in the on-going reform of forest legislation as well as the modernisation. Forest legislation is one of the very few spheres of Finnish environmental legislation where openness and participation are still considered a threat. The first Finnish forest certification scheme, PEFC, was established in 2000. It now covers more than 20 million hectares, about 95% of the forests in Finland. PEFC Finland does not require a higher level of biodiversity protection than the recommendations by Tapio (the Development Centre for Forestry), but certification has unified forest management practices and requires more protection measures than mere forest legislation. The study suggests that in Finland PEFC has not functioned as an instrument which would substantially improve the level of forest management. Rather it has supported the status quo of the forest sector. While the ecological and social responsibility of Finland-based forest corporations was one impetus for this research, I want to conclude that there are problems related to forest legislation and non-state regulation in both Finland and Russia. If an enterprise buying wood from Russia buys only certified wood, and carefully avoids wood coming from high conservation value forests that are either ecologically or socially valuable, it can be claimed to be as sustainably produced as in Finland. However, there must be continuous scrutiny of the circumstances. In Russia, the level of the compliance of certification criteria varies considerably, and there are vast unprotected invaluable forest areas. The utilisation of these areas should not be based on short-sighted decisions or lack of consensus among stakeholders.

Forest Biomass Resources and Technological Prospects for the Production of Second-generation Biofuels in Finland by 2020

Introduction of second-generation biofuels is an essential factor for meeting the EU’s 2020 targets for renewable energy in the transport sector and enabling the more ambitious targets for 2030. Finland’s forest industry is strongly involved in the development and commercialising of second-generation biofuel production technologies. The goal of this paper is to provide a quantified insight into Finnish prospects for reaching the 2020 national renewable energy targets and concurrently becoming a large-scale producer of forest biomass based second-generation biofuels feeding the increasing demand in European markets. The focus of the paper is on assessing the potential for utilising forest biomass for liquid biofuels up to 2020. In addition, technological issues related to the production of second-generation biofuels were reviewed. Finland has good opportunities to realise a scenario to meet 2020 renewable energy targets and for large-scale production of wood based biofuels. In 2020, biofuel production from domestic forest biomass in Finland may reach nearly a million ton (40 PJ). With the existing biofuel production capacity (20 PJ/yr) and national biofuel consumption target (25 PJ) taken into account, the potential net export of biofuels from Finland in 2020 would be 35 PJ, corresponding to 2–3% of European demand. Commercialisation of second-generation biofuel production technologies, high utilisation of the sustainable harvesting potential of Finnish forest biomass, and allocation of a significant proportion of the pulpwood harvesting potential for energy purposes are prerequisites for this scenario. Large-scale import of raw biomass would enable remarkably greater biofuel production than is described in this paper.

Energy storage in electric drive system

In recent years the environmental issues and the energy saving have become increasingly import in modern society where industry is the major emission factor and energy consumer. Generally, most of the total energy consumption is caused by electrical drives used in industrial applications and thus improving the performance of electrical drives give an opportunity to improve the energy efficiency. In this Master Thesis improving the energy efficiency in different electrical drives is clarified with different cases: regenerative braking in the electric grid or recovery of the braking energy into an energy storage. In addition, as an example, the energy consumption of an elevator is analyzed by measurements. From these measurement results it can be estimated how much the share of the standby energy consumption is from the total energy consumption and how much regenerative energy is available. The latter part of the thesis concentrates on determination of the properties of lithium iron phosphate battery with measurements.

Uso de tela termorrefletora em ambientes protegidos para cultivo do tomateiro

O emprego de telas termorrefletoras, como forma de limitar o aumento da temperatura do ar em ambientes protegidos, deve ser manejado, a fim de evitar a redução excessiva da radiação solar, dada sua importância sobre o desenvolvimento e a produção de hortaliças como o tomateiro. Nesse contexto, os objetivos do trabalho foram comparar os microclimas entre ambientes protegidos cultivados com tomateiro, sendo um coberto somente com polietileno de baixa densidade (PEBD) reforçado e outro coberto com PEBD reforçado associado a uma tela termorrefletora aluminizada retrátil, sob condições de manejo, e avaliar sua adequação às condições climáticas recomendadas à cultura do tomateiro pela bibliografia consultada. O experimento foi conduzido no município de Rio das Pedras-SP, entre 1º-08-11 e 21-01-12. A tela termorrefletora foi empregada somente em dias de céu límpido, entre as 11h e as 16h. Foram coletados dados de temperatura e umidade relativa do ar, radiação solar global (Qs) e radiação fotossinteticamente ativa (RFA) no interior de ambos os ambientes protegidos, e dados de temperatura do ar no ambiente externo. O emprego da tela termorrefletora aluminizada reduziu significativamente os valores médios de Qs, RFA e a temperatura do ar, ao passo que elevou os valores de umidade relativa do ar. O microclima do ambiente com tela adaptou-se melhor às condições climáticas consideradas adequadas pela bibliografia para o cultivo do tomateiro.

Central African identities and religiosity in colonial Minas Gerais

This study deals with the import of West Central African slaves and their religious practices to Minas Gerais in the eighteenth century. The captaincy of Minas Gerais in the interior of Brazil developed into the world’s largest gold producing region in the beginning of the eighteenth century. The large-scale mining of gold, and later diamonds, was only possible through massive imports of slaves from Africa to Brazil. The first part of this study discusses the Atlantic slave trade in the southern Atlantic world. The discovery of gold in Minas Gerais led to an increasing demand for slaves in Brazil, which was largely met by supplies from Angola. The study analyzes the formation of Central Africans’ identities both in their homelands and in Brazil. Slave identities or “nations” have often been seen as creations of the slave owners. By interpreting major Central African “nations” such as Angola, Congo, and Benguela as regional identities that were tied to the slaves’ origins in Africa, this study offers a new interpretation of what these identities meant for Central Africans in Minas Gerais. The second part of this study concentrates on the religious universe of Central Africans. Processes of cultural creolization affected West Central African societies after the Portuguese landed in the kingdom of Kongo in the late fifteenth century and led to the development of an Atlantic Creole culture. The spread of Catholicism in West Central Africa affected religious life especially in the kingdom of Kongo, in the city of Luanda, and in the Portuguese colony of Angola. Central African religious specialists were often denounced to the authorities in Angola for organizing healing and divination rituals. Diagnosis in these rituals was often made through spirit possession. Central Africans took these healing and divining methods to Minas Gerais, where numerous African religious specialists enjoyed great prominence. In the Brazilian mining region, it was commonplace that African healers served not only the African slave population, but also free whites. In the eighteenth century, Central African popular healers made a significant contribution to the therapeutic arts practiced in Minas Gerais and elsewhere in Brazil.