O uso da energia nuclear para as mais diversas finalidades tem se intensificado e destacado pelos benefícios que proporciona. A medicina diagnóstica e terapêutica, a agricultura, a indústria, a geração de energia elétrica, são alguns exemplos. Entretanto, o uso da energia nuclear gera rejeitos radioativos e estes requerem tratamento adequado para garantir a segurança ambiental e dos seres vivos. A biossorção e bioacumulação representam uma alternativa emergente, para o tratamento de rejeitos radioativos líquidos, proporcionando redução de volume e mudança de estado físico. Este trabalho teve como objetivos estudar biossorventes para promover o tratamento de rejeitos líquidos contendo Amerício-241, proporcionando redução de volume e mudando seu estado físico para sólido. Os biossorventes avaliados foram: Saccharomyces cerevisiae imobilizadas em alginato de cálcio, Saccharomyces cerevisiae livres e inativadas, alginato de cálcio, Bacillus subtilis, Cupriavidus metallidurans e Ochrobactrum anthropi. Os resultados foram bastante satisfatórios, chegando a 100 % em alguns casos. Esta técnica parece viável para a implantação no Laboratório de Rejeitos Radioativos do IPEN - CNEN/SP a curto prazo, por ser simples e de baixo custo. / The use of nuclear energy for many different purposes has been intensified and highlighted by the benefits that it provides. Medical diagnosis and therapy, agriculture, industry and electricity generation are examples of its application. However, nuclear energy generates radioactive wastes that require suitable treatment ensuring life and environmental safety. Biosorption and bioaccumulation represent an emergent alternative for the treatment of radioactive liquid wastes, providing volume reduction and physical state change. This work aimed to study biosorbents for the treatment of radioactive liquid wastes contaminated with americium-241 in order to reduce the volume and change the physical state from liquid to solid. The biosorbents evaluated were Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized in calcium alginate beads, inactivated and free cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, calcium alginate beads, Bacillus subtilis, Cupriavidus metallidurans and Ochrobactrum anthropi. The results were quite satisfactory, achieving 100% in some cases. The technique presented in this work may be useful and viable for implementing at the Waste Management Laboratory of IPEN CNEN/SP in short term, since it is an easy and low cost method.

O uso da energia nuclear para as mais diversas finalidades tem se intensificado e destacado pelos benefícios que proporciona. A medicina diagnóstica e terapêutica, a agricultura, a indústria, a geração de energia elétrica, são alguns exemplos. Entretanto, o uso da energia nuclear gera rejeitos radioativos e estes requerem tratamento adequado para garantir a segurança ambiental e dos seres vivos. A biossorção e bioacumulação representam uma alternativa emergente, para o tratamento de rejeitos radioativos líquidos, proporcionando redução de volume e mudança de estado físico. Este trabalho teve como objetivos estudar biossorventes para promover o tratamento de rejeitos líquidos contendo Amerício-241, proporcionando redução de volume e mudando seu estado físico para sólido. Os biossorventes avaliados foram: Saccharomyces cerevisiae imobilizadas em alginato de cálcio, Saccharomyces cerevisiae livres e inativadas, alginato de cálcio, Bacillus subtilis, Cupriavidus metallidurans e Ochrobactrum anthropi. Os resultados foram bastante satisfatórios, chegando a 100 % em alguns casos. Esta técnica parece viável para a implantação no Laboratório de Rejeitos Radioativos do IPEN - CNEN/SP a curto prazo, por ser simples e de baixo custo. / The use of nuclear energy for many different purposes has been intensified and highlighted by the benefits that it provides. Medical diagnosis and therapy, agriculture, industry and electricity generation are examples of its application. However, nuclear energy generates radioactive wastes that require suitable treatment ensuring life and environmental safety. Biosorption and bioaccumulation represent an emergent alternative for the treatment of radioactive liquid wastes, providing volume reduction and physical state change. This work aimed to study biosorbents for the treatment of radioactive liquid wastes contaminated with americium-241 in order to reduce the volume and change the physical state from liquid to solid. The biosorbents evaluated were Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized in calcium alginate beads, inactivated and free cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, calcium alginate beads, Bacillus subtilis, Cupriavidus metallidurans and Ochrobactrum anthropi. The results were quite satisfactory, achieving 100% in some cases. The technique presented in this work may be useful and viable for implementing at the Waste Management Laboratory of IPEN CNEN/SP in short term, since it is an easy and low cost method.

[by] J.M. Ham. / Bibliography: 53-54. / Army Signal Corps Contract DA36-039 sc-100, Project 8-102B-0. Dept. of the Army Project 3-99-10-022.

At least from the time of Augustine, Christians have been reflecting on the question of moral conflicts. Since the mid-1960s this issue has become the center of attention for several scholars, including Norman L. Geisler, who developed ethical hierarchicalism in an attempt to resolve these conflicts. The question therefore arises: Is ethical hierarchicalism comprehensive, consistent, and biblically sound, and the only viable approach for Christians, as Geisler claims? Because Geisler is the most articulate and influential proponent of this strategy, his ethical method was selected for this research. To provide some framework, a brief survey was made of various methods relating to ethical dilemmas. In addition to observing the contrasting ways in which eminent early Christians, Reformation leaders, post-Reformation thinkers, and twentieth-century scholars have dealt with moral conflicts, this overview examined utilitarianism, situationism, non-conflicting absolutism, conflicting absolutism, hierarchicalism and the principle of double effect. Additional background traced Geisler's philosophical, theological, and ethical development over the years. Then, after outlining what Geisler considers the fundamental presuppositions of theistic morality and Christian ethics, hierarchicalism was delineated. Next, Geisler's moral methodology was critiqued, firstly against his own basic presuppositions, then by comparing contradictory concepts within hierarchicalism, and finally by contrasting his theories with those of other Christian thinkers, and with the biblical passages that Geisler uses. Following this, positive aspects of hierarchicalism were enumerated, a synopsis and recommendations made, and a final conclusion drafted. This study indicates that ethical hierarchicalism contradicts most of the essential characteristics of theistic morality and Christian ethics as specified by Geisler himself. careful research suggests that, while this theory holds to divinely-derived objective moral norms, it also embraces relativistic, utilitarian, situational, antinomian, and teleological components. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that hierarchicalism is based on falsely assumed responsibilities, inaccurately specified absolutes, naturalistic definitions, a descriptive approach to Scripture, a bifurcation in God's law, and subtle semantic strategies. Though hierarchicalism does grapple with difficult issues, emphasize personhood and individual responsibility, and offer relief from false guilt, this method of moral reasoning appears unacceptable for Christians since it is incoherent, inconsistent, self-contradictory, and unscriptural. / Theological Ethics / D.Th, (Theological Ethics)

The context in which we find ourselves at the beginning of the twenty-first century is one of acute environmental degradation. In this thesis, I examine how Christians may respond to the realities of degradation through ecological restoration, an environmental practice aimed at assisting the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged, or destroyed, and do so in ways that reflect the core belief in the redemptive purposes of God in Christ for creation. The intention, therefore, is to construct a theological framework for ethical responses to degradation through restoration. I begin by examining ecological restoration as a contested scientific and cultural practice, exploring the questions it raises on the nature of human life, the natural world, and moral action, and evaluating the role of history in shaping moral responses to degradation through restoration. To develop a theological framework for restoration, I engage the work of Christian ethicist Oliver O'Donovan, particularly his text on the foundations of Christian ethics: Resurrection and Moral Order. I ground this framework in his arguments for the resurrection (with its dual movements of restoration and transformation) as the starting point for moral action, for the work of the Holy Spirit who makes God’s redemption a reality that shapes moral action, and for love as the shape of moral action. I draw out the significance for restoration of his moral realist approach, examining the created order and articulating a theological anthropology, and I show how the resurrection of Christ provides a guide for restorative action that both affirms the created order and yet remains attentive and open to its, and our, transformation. Finally, through an examination of love as perceptive and responsive to the natural world, I articulate a vision for restorative action that is oriented toward upholding and preserving the value of the natural world, and attentively and creatively responding to it in ways that bring forth its value so that it may be seen for what it is: the beloved world that God has affirmed and redeemed in the resurrection and which awaits its fulfilment.

In this thesis I compare the works of Confucius and Mencius with those of Saint Augustine. My purpose in so doing is to show Confucian Augustinianism as a new theological perspective on Confucian- Christian ethics and Augustinianism by discovering analogies and differences in their respective understandings of the formation of moral self, particularly the acquisition of virtue, and how they believe this leads to happiness. Using the method of inter-textual reasoning, and assuming continuity between Augustine’s early and later works, I compare Confucius and Mencius’s xue (學), si (思) and li (禮) including yue (樂) with Augustine’s moral learning, contemplation, sacrament, and music respectively from chapter two to four. For Augustine the formation of the moral self is the process of finding truth in God. For Confucius and Mencius it is the process of becoming a person of virtue, which follows from growth in self-understanding in relation to the Way (道). For Confucians humans already have potential self-in-heart bestowed by Heaven whereas for Augustine the self is the metaphor of the soul in the struggle of both body and soul to be directed toward the love of God in which true happiness exists. In the concluding chapter, I propose a Confucian Augustinian synthesis as a new theological perspective on Confucian-Christian ethics and Augustinianism which offers a useful medium for the formation of the moral self by mutually making up for their respective weaknesses as revealed by this critical intertextual and cross-cultural reading. I argue that Augustinians can learn the value of public ritual practices and the public political self from classical Confucians whereas Confucians can learn from Augustine the value of spiritual experience in the moral formation of the pubic self. Confucian Augustinianism is teleological, constructive, political, public, sacramental and sin-virtue oriented theology. Confucian Augustinianism which is based on virtue ethics as common ground between Confucians and Augustine not only shows methodologies for engaging in public issues with civil society for its articulation of theology in the public sphere, but also provides profound spirituality with the engagement of Augustinian biblical and systematic theology unlike liberation theologies. In contrast to modern Augustinianism such as Augustinian realism (hope), Augustinian proceduralism (justice), Augustinian civic liberalism (love), and Radical Orthodoxy (love), Confucian Augustinianism highlights the virtue of humility and sincerity (誠) for the practice of love of God and neighbour by offering specific methods for cultivating self. Contrary to Confucian theology according to understanding of Heaven in the Confucian tradition, Confucian Augustinianism focuses on how to embody the Way of Heaven by cultivating virtue (德) rather than the theology of Heaven (天) or lists of virtues. By linking the self to family, community, nation, and transcendent God Confucian Augustinianism shows distinguishing ways for sanctification. Confucian Augustinianism is to seek true happiness by cultivating virtue and promoting inward, outward, and upward self through moral learning, contemplation, sacramental ritual, and music on the basis of biblical truth in a pluralistic global context. It can rectify the limit of Protestant individualism. Confucian Augustinianism is an own angle of Asian Christians on Augustinianism in the rapid growth of Christians in Asia contrary to previous Western Augustinianism. Confucian Augustinianism could make Asian Christians happy in truth.

This thesis argues that the transition from traditional Roman ideas of sexual behaviour to idealised Christian sexual behaviour was a reactionary process, for which the period from AD 390 to AD 520 offers a crucial key stage. During this era, the Roman West underwent significant socio-political changes, resulting in warfare and violent conflict, which created a pressurised and traumatic environment for people who endured them. In this context, the rhetoric of divine punishment for sinful behaviour was strongly linked with sexual acts, causing ideas on sexual mores to develop. The thesis highlights three key aspects of these developments. Firstly, warfare necessitated changes in Christian doctrines on marriages and rape, resulting from collective and cultural trauma. Secondly, sexually impure acts of incest and prostitution were defiling to the religious collective yet the consequences of these were negotiated on a case-to-case basis, reflecting adaptation. Thirdly, traditional Roman ideas of polygyny and homosexual acts overrode Christian ideas on the same. After discussing these three aspects, this work offers a revised interpretation of Salvian of Marseilles’s De gubernatione Dei to illuminate the purpose of the sexual polemic contained in his work – a task that no existing scholarship has attempted to undertake. Daily realities and conflicts drove discourses on sexual mores forwards, and this thesis outlines how this occurred in practice, arguing that attitudes to sex were deeply rooted in secular contexts and were reactionary in nature. This examination of attitudes to sexual mores reveals a re-moulding of pre-existing Roman cultural norms, rather than a revolutionising Christian overtake. The thesis concludes that the ‘Christianisation’ of late Roman society was a process conditioned by contemporary events and concerns, which contributes to interpretations on the dynamics of cultural change in the late antique era.

Inaug.-diss.-Berlin.

Inaug.-diss.-Berlin.

Inaug.-diss.--Tübingen. / Lebenslauf.