The principle of equality in the workplace, enshrined in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, applies to a wide category of workers. However, there are certain exceptions to the legislation. Ministers of religion are not protected by the Act where employment is limited to one sex. Historically "employment" as a Church of England priest was limited to one sex. Then in 1993, following the momentous General Synod vote, legislation was passed which allowed women to be ordained as priests. A significant change had taken place regarding the theology of the Church. This shift in theology also brought the legal position of priests, in relation to sex discrimination, into question. An initial question was, should such priests be protected by secular employment legislation? if so, what are the legal difficulties of inclusion under the Sex Discrimination Act, and what are the practical difficulties of accommodation under the Act? These questions form the foundation stones of this thesis. A four stage process was used to answer these questions. First, a philosophical analysis of the theory behind sex discrimination law was undertaken, focusing on the concepts of equality and difference. Secondly, the position of the Church of England in relation to sex discrimination law was assessed with special reference to the employment status of ministers of religion. Thirdly, drawing on the theoretical work of stages one and two, an empirical investigation into the treatment of Church of England priests was conducted. The fourth stage built upon the empirical findings and the theoretical framework. British and European Community sex discrimination law was critically analysed, as was the relevant ecclesiastical law, and recommendations for law reform were made.

Some years ago I completed an M. A. degree at Huddersfield University on 'The Fly Sheet Controversy and the Wesleyan Reform movement in Birstall and the Spen Valley 1849-1857'. The present study is wider in scope and includes all the divisions within Methodism and is centred on Bradford, but includes the Bingley and Shipley circuits and the Birstall and Cleckheaton circuits, the whole being referred to as 'the Bradford area'. Between 1796 and 1857 several groups of Methodists left their Wesleyan chapels to create new societies, still Methodist in doctrine and tradition, but with different styles of church government. The Independent Methodists, Primitive Methodists and Bible Christians were looking for greater freedom to organise their worship and evangelical outreach without the restrictions imposed by Conference and the ministers. In other cases secessions followed disputes over specific issues - the Methodist New Connexion sought greater democracy and more lay involvement, the Protestant Methodists resented the approval by Conference of an organ at Brunswick Chapel, the Wesleyan Methodist Association objected to arrangements for ministerial training and the Wesleyan Reformers complained of ministerial domination of Methodism. Each division was different, but behind them all lay a pattern of continuing conflict between ministers and lay members. This obliged many Methodists to make difficult and far-reaching choices between remaining within Wesleyan Methodism and making a new commitment to an uncertain future. In every dispute both sides claimed the moral high ground, and both were certain that they were right. Wesleyan ministers claimed authority in accordance with the principle of the Pastoral Office, but found themselves in a difficult situation, being obliged by Conference to rule as well as to lead. Lay members felt in a strong position among family and friends within their chapels, but many were unwilling to give unquestioning obedience to men who were little different in background from themselves, preferring instead a more open and more democratic style of Methodism. The national background of each dispute is outlined before its impact on the Methodists in the Bradford area is considered in detail, and the outcome of each confrontation is then examined. An attempt is then made to assess the significance of membership of the different Methodist denominations in terms of political activities and relationships with other churches, although it is suggested that little evidence is available to distinguish between members of the various Methodist groups. In summary, conflict between ministers supported by Conference and the lay members weakened local Methodism. The hardening of attitudes by both sides and their refusal to compromise, which led to the creation of new Methodist groups, destroyed the unity of Methodism in the Bradford area.

Blazars are active galactic nuclei characterized by ultra-luminous broad-band, non-thermal radio to gamma-ray continuum radiation, and by irregular, rapid flux variability across wavebands. They are divided into two subclasses: BL Lac objects and flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs). A primary method employed to probe our understanding of these objects is to study their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Until recently, however, studies of blazar SEDs have been hindered by an insufficient number of simultaneous observations across the spectrum, a critical deficiency with such variable objects. In this thesis, I discuss the data accumulated by an international, long-term, 35-blazar monitoring program led by the Boston University blazar group. By systematically processing these data, I produce SEDs using measurements obtained on average within nine hours per epoch. Sufficient measurements exist within the data set to study the sources in differing states of activity. I propose a definition of quiescent and active states, and extract measurements for epochs during which the sources were either quiescent or active in the gamma-ray regime. For these epochs, I measure the spectral slopes and statistically analyze the relationships between slopes at the different frequency regimes. While the subclasses exhibit some distinct characteristics in the optical and gamma-ray indices when quiescent, these distinctions are significantly less pronounced when the objects are active. The spectral indices for the FSRQs steepen when active in the optical, flatten in the gamma-ray, and remain flat and stable in the X-ray. Generally, BL Lacs exhibit less pronounced changes between states than do the FSRQs.

The extragalactic gamma-ray sky is dominated by blazars, active galactic nuclei (AGN) with a relativistic jet that is closely aligned with the line of sight. Galaxies develop an active nucleus if the central supermassive black hole (BH) accretes large amounts of ambient matter and magnetic flux. The inflowing mass accumulates around the plane perpendicular to the accretion flow's angular momentum. The flow is heated through viscous friction and part of the released energy is radiated as blackbody or non-thermal radiation, with luminosities that can dominate the accumulated stellar luminosity of the host galaxy. A fraction of the accretion flow luminosity is reprocessed in a surrounding field of ionised gas clouds. These clouds, revolving around the central BH, emit Doppler-broadened atomic emission lines. The region where these broad-line-emitting clouds are located is called broad-line region (BLR). About one in ten AGN forms an outflow of radiation and relativistic particles, called a relativistic jet. According to the Blandford-Znajek mechanism, this is facilitated through electromagnetic processes in the magnetosphere of a spinning BH. The latter induces a magnetospheric poloidal current circuit, generating a decelerating torque on the BH and inducing a toroidal magnetic field. Consequently, rotational energy of the BH is converted to Poynting flux streaming away mainly along the rotational axis and starting the jet. One possibility for particle acceleration near the jet base is realised by magnetospheric vacuum gaps, regions temporarily devoid of plasma, such that an intermittent electric field arises parallel to the magnetic field lines, enabling particle acceleration and contributing to the mass loading of the jets. Magnetised structures, containing bunches of relativistic electrons, propagate away from the galactic nucleus along the jets. Assuming that these electrons emit synchrotron radiation and that they inverse-Compton (IC) up-scatter abundant target photons, which can either be the synchrotron photons themselves or photons from external emitters, the emitted spectrum can be theoretically determined. Additionally taking into account that these emission regions move relativistically themselves and that the emission is Doppler-boosted and beamed in forward direction, the typical two-hump spectral energy distribution (SED) of blazars is recovered. There are however findings that challenge this well-established model. Short-time variability, reaching down to minute scales at very high energy gamma rays, is today known to be a widespread phenomenon of blazars, calling for very compact emission regions. In most models of such optically thick emission regions, the gamma-ray flux is usually pair-absorbed exponentially, without considering the cascade evolving from the pair-produced electrons. From the observed flux, it is often concluded that emission emanates from larger distances where the region is optically thin, especially from outside of the BLR. Only in few blazars gamma-ray attenuation associated with pair absorption in the BLR was clearly reported. With the advent of sophisticated high-energy or very high energy gamma-ray detectors, like the Fermi Large Area Telescope or the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov telescopes, besides the extraordinarily fast variability spectral features have been found that cannot be explained by conventional models reproducing the two-hump SED. Two such narrow spectral features are discussed in this work. For the nearby blazar Markarian 501, hints to a sharp peak around 3 TeV have been reported from a multi-wavelength campaign carried out in July 2014, while for 3C 279 a spectral dip was found in 2018 data, that can hardly be described with conventional fitting functions. In this work it is examined whether these spectral peculiarities of blazar jet emission can be explained, if the full radiation reprocessing through an IC pair cascade is accounted for. Such a cascade is the multiple concatenation of IC scattering events and pair production events. In the cascades generally considered in this work, relativistic electrons and high-energy photons are injected into a fixed soft target photon field. A mathematical description for linear IC pair cascades with escape terms is delivered on the basis of preliminary works. The steady-state kinetic equations for the electrons and for the photons are determined, whereby it is paid attention to an explicit formulation and to motivating the correct integration borders of all integrals from kinematic constraints. In determining the potentially observable gamma-ray flux, both the attenuated injected flux and the flux evolving as an effect of IC up-scattering, pair absorption and escape are incorporated, giving the emerging spectra very distinct imprints. Much effort is dedicated to the numerical solution of the electrons' kinetic equation via iterative schemes. It is explained why pointwise iteration from higher to lower Lorentz factors is more efficient than iterating the whole set of sampling points. The algorithm is parallelised at two positions. First, several workers can perform pointwise iterations simultaneously. Second, the most demanding integral is cut into a number of part integrals which can be determined by multiple workers. Through these measures, the Python code can be readily applied to simulate steady-state IC pair cascades with escape. In the case of Markarian 501 the developed framework is as follows. The AGN hosts an advection-dominated accretion flow with a normalised accretion rate of several \(10^{-4}\) and an electron temperature near \(10^{10}\) K. On the one hand, the accretion flow illuminates the few ambient gas clouds with approximate radius \(10^{11}\) m, which reprocess a fraction 0.01 of the luminosity into hydrogen and helium emission lines. On the other hand, the gamma rays from the accretion flow create electrons and positrons in a sporadically active vacuum gap in the BH magnetosphere. In the active gap, a power of roughly 0.001 of the Blandford-Znajek power is extracted from the rotating BH through a gap potential drop of several \(10^{18}\) V, generating ultra-relativistic electrons, which subsequently are multiplied by a factor of about \(10^6\) through interaction with the accretion flow photons. This electron beam propagates away from the central engine and encounters the photon field of one passing ionised cloud. The resulting IC pair cascade is simulated and the evolving gamma-ray spectrum is determined. Just above the absorption troughs due to the hydrogen lines, the spectrum exhibits a narrow bump around 3 TeV. When the cascaded emission is added to the emission generated at larger distances, the observed multi-wavelength SED including the sharp peak at 3 TeV is reproduced, underlining that radiation processes beyond conventional models are motivated by distinct spectral features. The dip in the spectrum of 3C 279 is addressed by a similar cascade model. Three types of injection are considered, varying in the ratio of the photon density to the electron density and varying in the spectral shape. The IC pair cascade is assumed to happen either in the dense BLR photon field with a luminosity of several \(10^{37}\) W and a radial size of few \(10^{14}\) m or in the diluted photon field outside of the BLR. The latter scenario is however rejected as the spectral slope around several 100 MeV and the dip at few 10 GeV cannot be reconciled within this model. The radiation cascaded in the BLR can explain the observational data, irrespective of the assumed injected rate. It is therefore concluded that for this period of gamma-ray emission, the radiation production happens at the edge of the BLR of 3C 279. Both investigations show that IC pair cascades can account for fine structure seen in blazar SEDs. It is insufficient to restrict the radiation transport to pure exponential absorption of an injection term. Pair production and IC up-scattering by all generations of photons and electrons in the optically thick regime critically shape the emerging spectra. As the advent of future improved detectors will provide more high-precision spectra, further observations of narrow spectral features can be expected. It seems therefore recommendable to incorporate cascading into conventional radiation production models or to extend the model developed in this work by synchrotron radiation. / Beobachtet man das Firmament im Licht der Gammastrahlung, stellen Blasare die Mehrzahl extragalaktischer Objekte dar. Blasare sind aktive Galaxienkerne mit einem relativistischen Jet, der entlang der Sichtlinie ausgerichtet ist. Galaxien haben einen aktiven Kern, wenn das zentrale supermassereiche Schwarze Loch große Mengen an Umgebungsmaterie und magnetischem Fluss akkretiert. Die nach Innen strömende Masse sammelt sich nahe der Ebene an, die senkrecht zum Drehimpuls des Akkretionsflusses steht. Das akkretierte Material wird durch viskose Reibung aufgeheizt und ein Teil der freigesetzten Energie wird als Schwarzkörper- oder nicht-thermische Strahlung abgestrahlt, deren Leuchtkraft die gesamte stellare Leuchtkraft der Wirtsgalaxie übertreffen kann. Ein Teil der Leuchtkraft des Akkretionsflusses wird in einem umgebenden Feld von ionisierten Gaswolken reprozessiert. Diese Wolken, die um das zentrale Schwarze Loch kreisen, emittieren Doppler-verbreiterte Emissionslinien. Den Teil des aktiven Galaxienkerns, in dem sich diese Wolken befinden, bezeichnet man als BLR (englisch: broad-line region). Ihr Abstand zum zentralen Schwarzen Loch beträgt typischerweise etwa 0,1 pc. Etwa einer von zehn aktiven Galaxienkernen bildet einen Ausfluss von Strahlung und relativistischen Teilchen aus, einen sogenannten relativistischen Jet. Dies wird gemäß dem Blandford-Znajek-Mechanismus durch elektromagnetische Prozesse in den Magnetosphären rotierender Schwarzer Löcher bewerkstelligt. Letztere induzieren einen poloidalen magnetosphärischen Stromkreis, der ein abbremsendes Drehmoment auf das Schwarze Loch ausübt und ein toroidales Magnetfeld erzeugt. Folglich wird die Rotationsenergie des Schwarzen Lochs in Poynting-Fluss umgewandelt, der hauptsächlich entlang der Rotationsachse abfließt und den Jet entstehen lässt. Durch Prozesse, die noch nicht eindeutig identifiziert wurden, werden geladene Teilchen in der Nähe der Jetbasis beschleunigt. Eine Möglichkeit dafür ist Teilchenbeschleunigung in magnetosphärischen Vakuum-Lücken. Dies sind Regionen, die vorübergehend nahezu frei von Plasma sind, sodass zeitweise ein elektrisches Feld parallel zu den Magnetfeldlinien entsteht, das die Teilchenbeschleunigung ermöglicht und zur Aufladung der Jets mit massebehafteten Teilchen beiträgt. Magnetisierte Strukturen, die relativistische Elektronen enthalten, bewegen sich entlang der Jets vom Galaxienkern weg. Unter der Annahme, dass diese Elektronen Synchrotronstrahlung aussenden und dass sie vorhandenen weichen Photonen, die entweder die Synchrotronphotonen selbst oder Photonen von externen Emittern sein können, durch inverse Compton-Streuung höhere Energien verleihen, kann das emittierte Spektrum berechnet werden. Berücksichtigt man zusätzlich, dass sich diese Emissionsgebiete selbst relativistisch bewegen und dass die Emission Doppler-verstärkt ist und bevorzugt in Vorwärtsrichtung abgestrahlt wird, erhält man die typische zweihöckrige spektrale Energieverteilung von Blasaren. Es gibt jedoch Erkenntnisse, die dieses bewährte Modell in Frage stellen. Kurzzeit-Variabilität, die bei sehr hochenergetischer Gammastrahlung bis zu Minuten-Skalen hinunterreicht, ist ein weit verbreitetes Phänomen bei Blasaren und setzt sehr kompakte Emissionsregionen voraus. In den meisten Modellen für solche optisch dicken Emissionsregionen wird der Gammastrahlenfluss durch Paarbildung lediglich exponentiell absorbiert, ohne die Kaskade zu berücksichtigen, die sich durch die erzeugten Elektronen entwickelt. Aus den Beobachtungen wird oft gefolgert, dass die Emission aus optisch dünnen Regionen bei größeren Entfernungen stammt, insbesondere von außerhalb der BLR. Nur bei wenigen Blasaren wurde eine Abschwächung der Gammastrahlung durch Absorption in der BLR eindeutig nachgewiesen. Durch moderne Gammastrahlen-Detektoren, wie das Fermi Large Area Telescope oder den Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov Teleskopen, wurden neben der Kurzzeit-Variabilität auch spektrale Merkmale gefunden, die nicht durch konventionelle Modelle, die die zweihöckrigen spektralen Energieverteilungen wiedergeben können, erklärt werden können. Zwei solcher besonderen spektralen Merkmale werden in dieser Arbeit diskutiert. Für den Blasar Markarian 501 wurden bei einer im Juli 2014 durchgeführten Multiwellenlängenkampagne Hinweise auf einen schmalen Buckel bei 3 TeV gefunden, während für 3C 279 in Daten von 2018 eine Mulde im Spektrum gefunden wurde, die mit oft verwendeten Fit-Funktionen nur schlecht beschrieben werden kann. In dieser Arbeit wird untersucht, ob diese spektralen Besonderheiten der Blasar-Jet-Emission erklärt werden können, wenn die vollständige Reprozessierung der Strahlung durch eine inverse Compton-Paar-Kaskade berücksichtigt wird. Eine solche Kaskade ist die mehrfache Aneinanderreihung von inverser Compton-Streuung und Paarproduktion. Bei den in dieser Arbeit allgemein betrachteten Kaskaden werden relativistische Elektronen und hochenergetische Photonen in eine Region mit niederenergetischen Photonen konstanter Dichte injiziert. Auf der Grundlage von Vorarbeiten wird eine mathematische Beschreibung für lineare inverse Compton-Paar-Kaskaden mit Entweichtermen ausgearbeitet. Es werden die zeit-unabhängigen kinetischen Gleichungen für Elektronen und Photonen hergeleitet, wobei auf eine vollständige Formulierung und auf die Begründung der korrekten Integrationsgrenzen aller Integrale durch die kinematischen Vorgaben geachtet wird. Bei der Bestimmung des potentiell beobachtbaren Gammastrahlenflusses werden sowohl der teilweise absorbierte, injizierte Fluss als auch der Fluss, der sich als Effekt der inversen Compton-Streuung, der Paar-Absorption und des Entweichens ergibt, einbezogen, was den entstehenden Spektren charakteristische Formen aufprägt. Die kinetische Gleichung der Elektronen wird durch iterative Vorgehensweisen numerisch gelöst. Es wird erklärt, warum eine punktweise Iteration von höheren zu niedrigeren Lorentz-Faktoren effizienter ist als die Iteration des gesamten Satzes von Stützstellen. Der Algorithmus wird an zwei Stellen parallelisiert. Erstens können mehrere Prozessor-Kerne gleichzeitig punktweise Iterationen durchführen. Zweitens wird das rechenintensivste Integral in mehrere Teilintegrale zerlegt, die von mehreren Kernen berechnet werden können. Durch diese Maßnahmen kann der Python-Code zur Simulation von zeitunabhängigen inversen Compton-Paar-Kaskaden eingesetzt werden. Im Fall von Markarian 501 wird folgendes Modell bemüht. Der aktive Galaxienkern hat einen advektionsdominierten Akkretionsfluss mit einer normalisierten Akkretionsrate von mehreren \(10^{-4}\) und einer Elektronentemperatur um \(10^{10}\) K. Einerseits bestrahlt der Akkretionsfluss die wenigen umgebenden Gaswolken mit ungefährem Radius von \(10^{11}\) m, die einen Faktor 0,01 der Leuchtkraft in Form von Wasserstoff- und Helium-Emissionslinien wieder abstrahlen. Andererseits erzeugen die vom Akkretionsfluss stammenden Gammaphotonen in einer zeitweise aktiven Vakuum-Lücke in der Magnetosphäre des Schwarzen Lochs Elektronen und Positronen. In der geöffneten Lücke wird dem rotierenden Schwarzen Loch durch einen Potentialunterschied von mehreren \(10^{18}\) V eine Leistung von etwa 0,001 der Blandford-Znajek-Leistung entzogen, wodurch ultra-relativistische Elektronen erzeugt werden, die anschließend durch Wechselwirkung mit den Photonen des Akkretionsflusses um einen Faktor von etwa \(10^6\) multipliziert werden. Dieser Elektronenstrahl verlässt die Magnetosphäre und trifft auf das Photonenfeld einer vorbeiziehenden ionisierten Wolke. Die daraus resultierende inverse Compton-Paar-Kaskade wird simuliert und das sich ergebende Gammastrahlenspektrum wird berechnet. Unmittelbar oberhalb der durch die Wasserstofflinien verursachten Absorptionströge erscheint bei rund 3 TeV ein schmaler Höcker. Wenn die Strahlung der Kaskade der aus größerer Entfernung stammenden Strahlung überlagert wird, wird die gesamte spektrale Energieverteilung einschließlich des scharfen Buckels bei 3 TeV reproduziert. Das bedeutet, dass schmale spektrale Merkmale für die Relevanz von Strahlungsprozessen sprechen, die über konventionelle Modelle hinausgehen. Der Trog im Spektrum von 3C 279 wird mit einem ähnlichen Kaskadenmodell untersucht. Es werden drei Fälle der Injektion betrachtet, die sich im Verhältnis der Photonen-Anzahl zur Elektronen-Anzahl und im spektralen Verlauf unterscheiden. Es wird angenommen, dass die Kaskade entweder im dichten Photonenfeld der BLR mit einer Leuchtkraft von mehreren \(10^{37}\) W und einer radialen Ausdehnung von einigen \(10^{14}\) m oder im ausgedünnten Photonenfeld außerhalb der BLR stattfindet. Das letztgenannte Szenario muss jedoch verworfen werden, da die spektrale Steigung bei einigen 100 MeV und der Absorptionstrog bei einigen 10 GeV innerhalb dieses Modells nicht miteinander in Einklang gebracht werden können. Die innerhalb der BLR kaskadierte Strahlung kann die Beobachtungsdaten unabhängig von der angenommenen Injektionsrate erklären. Daraus folgt, dass die Gammastrahlung während dieses Emissionsereignisses am Rande der BLR von 3C 279 produziert wird. Beide Untersuchungen zeigen, dass inverse Compton-Paar-Kaskaden Feinstrukturen in der spektralen Energieverteilung von Blasaren erklären können. Es reicht nicht aus, den Strahlungstransport auf reine exponentielle Absorption eines Injektionsterms zu beschränken. Paarbildung und inverse Compton-Streuung im optisch dicken Bereich und über alle Generationen von Photonen und Elektronen hinweg prägen die entstehenden Spektren entscheidend. Da künftige, verbesserte Detektoren detailliertere Spektren liefern werden, darf man weitere Berichte über schmale spektrale Merkmale erwarten. Es erscheint daher empfehlenswert, die Kaskadierung in konventionelle Modelle der Strahlungsproduktion mit einzubeziehen oder das in dieser Arbeit entwickelte Modell um Synchrotronstrahlung zu erweitern.

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Este trabalho aproxima as contribuições da teoria das representações sociais e dos estudos em memória social para a compreensão do campo religioso, especificamente o Espiritismo, reconhecendo a importância da recordação de personalidades para a dinâmica religiosa. Esta pesquisa objetiva analisar o conteúdo da representação social de perfeição, o conteúdo e estrutura da memória de personalidades do Espiritismo e a relação entre ambos. Trata-se de estudo descritivo, desenvolvido em duas etapas. Participaram 75 participantes auto-declarados espíritas - 38 na primeira etapa e 37 na segunda, sendo entrevistados 24 desses. Os participantes, em média, possuíam 37,3 anos de idade e 16,7 anos como espíritas. Na primeira fase aplicou-se, através da Internet, a técnica de evocações livres com o termo indutor “espíritos superiores”, na qual os participantes respondiam que pessoas se associavam ao termo. Na segunda, prosseguiu-se com as evocações livres e questionário, para caracterização dos participantes. A partir das doze personalidades mais lembradas, realizou-se entrevista semi-estruturada, com questões sobre características, virtudes, lembranças, hierarquia das personalidades, e questões sobre o significado da perfeição e como alcançá-la. Os dados das evocações foram analisados através das técnicas do quadro de quatro casas e construção de árvore máxima de similitude. As entrevistas foram analisadas mediante análise categorial temática. Assim, verificou-se que as personalidades mais recordadas foram: Chico Xavier, Jesus, Allan Kardec, Emmanuel, Bezerra de Menezes, Madre Teresa de Calcutá, Joanna de Ângelis, Gandhi, André Luiz, Francisco de Assis, Maria de Nazaré e Divaldo P. Franco. A representação social de perfeição foi expressa, de modo simplificado, na sentença: um caminho, difícil e longo, em que o ser humano sai da sua condição de inferioridade para a perfeição, através do conhecimento (proveniente do trabalho, do estudo e do auto-conhecimento), livrando-se do seu egoísmo e expressando o amor, tal como demonstrado e vivido por Jesus. Verificou-se, ainda, que essas memórias se organizam, principalmente, em dois modelos de valores complementares no Espiritismo: 1) conhecimento, inteligência, razão, estudo, livro e 2) amor, vivência, fé, trabalho, exemplo. Eles se constituem nas duas condições essenciais para se alcançar essa perfeição. O primeiro modelo está principalmente personificado na figura de Allan Kardec e o segundo, em Jesus. Nesse sentido, o Espiritismo opera na mente dos fiéis, uma síntese entre ambos os modelos, tendo em Chico Xavier a personificação dessa síntese, constituindo-se como tipo ideal de espírita. /// [en] This work resorts to the contributions of both social representations theory and the studies about social memory in order to understand the religious field – Spiritism in particular – considering the importance to remind personalities in religious practices. This survey aims to analyze the contents of social representation of perfection, the contents and structure of Spiritism personalities’ memory as well as their relation. This is a descriptive study carried out in two sessions involving 75 self-declared Spiritism subjects with 38 people in the first session and 37 in the sec ond, being 24 of them interviewed. The participants are, on average, 37.3 years old who have been engaged in Spiritism for 16.7 years. A free-evocation technique with an inducing term “Superior Spirits” was applied in the first session through the Internet as the participants claimed that people were associated with the term. In the second session, we used free evocations and questionnaires in order to characterize the participants. Based on the 12 most reminded personalities, we had a semi-structured interview with questions about characteristics, virtues, memories, personality hierarchy, and questions on the meaning of perfection and how to reach it. The evocation data were analyzed through the four-housed chart techniques along with the EVOC 2003 software and the construction of the maximum similitude tree. Analyzing the interviews through the thematic categorial analysis, we figured out that the most reminded personalities were Chico Xavier, Jesus, Allan Kardec, Emmanuel, Bezerra de Menezes, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Joanna de Ângelis, Mohandas K. Gandhi, André Luiz, Francis of Assisi, Mary (mother of Jesus), and Divaldo P. Franco. The social representation of perfection was simplified and expressed in the sentence: the hard and long way human being follow when leaving his inferiority condition to reach perfection through knowledge (obtained from labor, study, self-knowledge), getting rid of selfishness and expressing love, as demonstrated and experienced by Jesus. We also concluded that these memories are mainly organized into two complementary value patterns in Spiritism: 1) knowledge, intelligence, rationality, study, literature and 2) Love, experience, faith, labor, example. They comprise two basic conditions to reach that perfection. The first pattern is mainly personalized in Allan Kardec’s image, and the second in Jesus. According to this view, we can ascertain that Spiritism operates in the faithfull’s mind, a synthesis between both patterns, being Chico Xavier its personification and thus regarded as the ideal type of spiritist. / CAPES

We live in a time of Globalization, where we find ourselves rubbing shoulders and working together in one place with all kinds of people belonging to different races and different creeds. We live in a world which now finds itself immersed in deep global conflicts (terrorism, suicide bombings, political retaliations) which many attribute to religious fanaticism. Thus we can only continue to live peacefully if we maintain that respect for each others beliefs. This is the global dimension this paper wishes to bring forth.In our present situation, if many of us expatriates (in Cambodia) live far from our own native land and we live with people of another culture, understanding their milieu will certainly help us understand the people of that place. And since religion is tied up to a particular language and culture, particularly here in Cambodia, it would be worthwhile to study the different religious influences brought about through the centuries upon Cambodian culture. Hence the social dimension of the paper.The third dimension would be a practical one. Understanding the differences between religions, we could focus more on the bridges that unite rather than the walls that separate us. In this way we realize that being different does not lessen our humanity but rather enriches it.The paper will present a historical overview of the religious history of Cambodia. The literary survey used in this paper will then attempt to list and describe some particular influences of each of these religions (Animism, Brahmanism, Buddhism) to the Cambodian way of living at the present. Then the paper will try to infer some insights on the observations made focusing on how to build bridges for dialogue between Christians and Khmer Buddhists. The paper searches into the intertwining of Animism, Brahmanism and Buddhism into what is now uniquely Cambodia’s national religion and how this would impact other religions now entering Cambodia specifically Christianity.

A esteatose hepática não alcóolica está relacionada às causas crescentes de morbimortalidade de doenças hepáticas. Sua incidência está relacionada à obesidade e comorbidades vinculadas a esta, na qual tem despertado grande interesse na pesquisa. A modulação quantitativa da dieta pode promover ou retardar a patologia. Desta forma, terapias voltadas para retardar ou diminuir a esteatose hepática não alcóolica poderiam atenuar o dano hepático, melhorar a função hepática e reduzir sua progressão. Os objetivos do presente estudo foram: avaliar o consumo de óleos vegetais ricos em MUFAs e PUFAs usados comercialmente na prevenção ou redução da esteatose hepática analisando parâmetros do metabolismo lipídico hepático e sérico, estresse oxidativo e retardando a progressão de NAFLD. Material e Métodos: os animais foram divididos nos seguintes grupos: Controle (n=10) + HLF * (n=10); Grupo HLF * AZ (n=10); Grupo HLF* CN (n=10); Grupo HLF* S (n=10). Após 16 semanas de dieta e tratamento com os respectivos óleos, os animais foram anestesiados e o sangue retirado por punção cardíaca e os tecidos para as análises posteriores. Resultados: A oferta de uma dieta rica em gordura saturada (banha) + frutose ocasionou um aumento do peso no grupo HLF enquanto a administração dos respectivos óleos vegetais foi capaz de retardar o ganho de peso. O peso hepático e da soma dos tecidos adiposos epididimal e retroperitonial foi maior no HLF enquanto houve redução significativa no peso hepático HLF/S. O tecido retroperitonial foi menor no HLF/CN. De uma maneira geral o tratamento com os respectivos óleos vegetais diminui a esteatose em todos os grupos experimentais. A oferta de azeite extra virgem não refletiu no ganho de peso, porém o grupo teve um aumento significativo de TG e VLDL séricos, com diminuição do colesterol sérico. Avaliado histologicamente diminuiu o score de esteatose quando comparado ao HLF sendo classificado como esteatose macro e microvesicular de leve a moderada. O óleo de soja apresentou uma maior quantidade de PUFAs, sendo rico em n-6, refletiu na manutenção do peso dos animais, diminuiu a esteatose, sendo classificado como esteatatose leve, quando comparado ao HLF, porém aumentou o colesterol sérico. Apresentou um aumento de MDA e diminuição de GSH hepático. O óleo de canola devido a seu teor em ácidos graxos PUFAs (n-6 e n-3) teve maior incorporação do EPA e DHA que parecem ter evidenciado positivamente. Não apresentou alteração nos parâmetros bioquímicos e apresentou menor acúmulo de gordura hepática através da análise do percentual de gordura hepática e histopatologia, sendo caracterizado como esteatose leve. Pela peroxidação lipídica apresentou um maior acúmulo de MDA, porém um aumento de GSH. Contudo, a oferta dos respectivos óleos influenciou positivamente em diferentes mecanismos fisiológicos. / The Non-alcoholic fatty liver is related to the increasing causes of morbidity and mortality of liver diases. Its incidence is related to obesity and comorbidities linked to it, in which it has awaked great interest in the research. The disease is associated to genetic predisposition, lack of physical activity and high intake of saturated fats and fructose. Quantitative modulation of the diet may promote or retard the pathology. Thus, therapies aimed at delaying or decreasing non alcoholic hepatic steatosis could alleviate liver damage, improve liver function and reduce its progression. The objectives of the present study were: to evaluate the consumption of vegetable oils rich in commercially available MUFAs and PUFAs in the prevention or reduction of hepatic steatosis by analyzing parameters of hepatic and serum lipid metabolism, oxidative stress and delaying the progression of NAFLD. Material and Methods: animals were divided into the following groups: Control (n = 10) + HLF * (n = 10); Group HLF * AZ (n = 10); Group HLF * CN (n = 10); Group HLF * S (n = 10). After 16 weeks of diet and treatment with the respective oils, the animals were anesthetized and blood was withdrawn by cardiac puncture and tissues for further analysis. Results: The supply of a diet rich in saturated fat (lard) + fructose caused an increase in weight in the HLF group while the administration of the respective vegetable oils was able to delay the weight gain. Liver weight and sum of epididymal and retroperitoneal adipose tissues were higher in HLF while there was a significant reduction in HLF / S hepatic weight. Retroperitoneal tissue was lower in HLF / CN. In general, treatment with the respective vegetable oils decreases steatosis in all experimental groups. The supply of extra virgin olive oil did not reflect weight gain, but the group had a significant increase in serum TG and VLDL, with a decrease in serum cholesterol. Histologically it reduced the steatosis score when compared to the HLF being classified as mild to moderate macro and microvesicular steatosis. Soybean oil presented a higher amount of PUFAs, being rich in n-6, reflected in the maintenance of animal weight, decreased steatosis, being classified as mild steatosis when compared to HLF, but increased serum cholesterol. He presented an increase of MDA and decrease of hepatic GSH. Canola oil due to its content of PUFAs (n-6 and n-3) had greater incorporation of EPA and DHA than appear to have been positively evidenced. There was no alteration in the biochemical parameters and presented lower accumulation of liver fat through the analysis of the percentage of liver fat and histopathology, being characterized as mild steatosis. By the lipid peroxidation presented a greater accumulation of MDA, but an increase of GSH. However, the supply of the respective oils had a positive influence on different physiological mechanisms.

A esteatose hepática não alcóolica está relacionada às causas crescentes de morbimortalidade de doenças hepáticas. Sua incidência está relacionada à obesidade e comorbidades vinculadas a esta, na qual tem despertado grande interesse na pesquisa. A modulação quantitativa da dieta pode promover ou retardar a patologia. Desta forma, terapias voltadas para retardar ou diminuir a esteatose hepática não alcóolica poderiam atenuar o dano hepático, melhorar a função hepática e reduzir sua progressão. Os objetivos do presente estudo foram: avaliar o consumo de óleos vegetais ricos em MUFAs e PUFAs usados comercialmente na prevenção ou redução da esteatose hepática analisando parâmetros do metabolismo lipídico hepático e sérico, estresse oxidativo e retardando a progressão de NAFLD. Material e Métodos: os animais foram divididos nos seguintes grupos: Controle (n=10) + HLF * (n=10); Grupo HLF * AZ (n=10); Grupo HLF* CN (n=10); Grupo HLF* S (n=10). Após 16 semanas de dieta e tratamento com os respectivos óleos, os animais foram anestesiados e o sangue retirado por punção cardíaca e os tecidos para as análises posteriores. Resultados: A oferta de uma dieta rica em gordura saturada (banha) + frutose ocasionou um aumento do peso no grupo HLF enquanto a administração dos respectivos óleos vegetais foi capaz de retardar o ganho de peso. O peso hepático e da soma dos tecidos adiposos epididimal e retroperitonial foi maior no HLF enquanto houve redução significativa no peso hepático HLF/S. O tecido retroperitonial foi menor no HLF/CN. De uma maneira geral o tratamento com os respectivos óleos vegetais diminui a esteatose em todos os grupos experimentais. A oferta de azeite extra virgem não refletiu no ganho de peso, porém o grupo teve um aumento significativo de TG e VLDL séricos, com diminuição do colesterol sérico. Avaliado histologicamente diminuiu o score de esteatose quando comparado ao HLF sendo classificado como esteatose macro e microvesicular de leve a moderada. O óleo de soja apresentou uma maior quantidade de PUFAs, sendo rico em n-6, refletiu na manutenção do peso dos animais, diminuiu a esteatose, sendo classificado como esteatatose leve, quando comparado ao HLF, porém aumentou o colesterol sérico. Apresentou um aumento de MDA e diminuição de GSH hepático. O óleo de canola devido a seu teor em ácidos graxos PUFAs (n-6 e n-3) teve maior incorporação do EPA e DHA que parecem ter evidenciado positivamente. Não apresentou alteração nos parâmetros bioquímicos e apresentou menor acúmulo de gordura hepática através da análise do percentual de gordura hepática e histopatologia, sendo caracterizado como esteatose leve. Pela peroxidação lipídica apresentou um maior acúmulo de MDA, porém um aumento de GSH. Contudo, a oferta dos respectivos óleos influenciou positivamente em diferentes mecanismos fisiológicos. / The Non-alcoholic fatty liver is related to the increasing causes of morbidity and mortality of liver diases. Its incidence is related to obesity and comorbidities linked to it, in which it has awaked great interest in the research. The disease is associated to genetic predisposition, lack of physical activity and high intake of saturated fats and fructose. Quantitative modulation of the diet may promote or retard the pathology. Thus, therapies aimed at delaying or decreasing non alcoholic hepatic steatosis could alleviate liver damage, improve liver function and reduce its progression. The objectives of the present study were: to evaluate the consumption of vegetable oils rich in commercially available MUFAs and PUFAs in the prevention or reduction of hepatic steatosis by analyzing parameters of hepatic and serum lipid metabolism, oxidative stress and delaying the progression of NAFLD. Material and Methods: animals were divided into the following groups: Control (n = 10) + HLF * (n = 10); Group HLF * AZ (n = 10); Group HLF * CN (n = 10); Group HLF * S (n = 10). After 16 weeks of diet and treatment with the respective oils, the animals were anesthetized and blood was withdrawn by cardiac puncture and tissues for further analysis. Results: The supply of a diet rich in saturated fat (lard) + fructose caused an increase in weight in the HLF group while the administration of the respective vegetable oils was able to delay the weight gain. Liver weight and sum of epididymal and retroperitoneal adipose tissues were higher in HLF while there was a significant reduction in HLF / S hepatic weight. Retroperitoneal tissue was lower in HLF / CN. In general, treatment with the respective vegetable oils decreases steatosis in all experimental groups. The supply of extra virgin olive oil did not reflect weight gain, but the group had a significant increase in serum TG and VLDL, with a decrease in serum cholesterol. Histologically it reduced the steatosis score when compared to the HLF being classified as mild to moderate macro and microvesicular steatosis. Soybean oil presented a higher amount of PUFAs, being rich in n-6, reflected in the maintenance of animal weight, decreased steatosis, being classified as mild steatosis when compared to HLF, but increased serum cholesterol. He presented an increase of MDA and decrease of hepatic GSH. Canola oil due to its content of PUFAs (n-6 and n-3) had greater incorporation of EPA and DHA than appear to have been positively evidenced. There was no alteration in the biochemical parameters and presented lower accumulation of liver fat through the analysis of the percentage of liver fat and histopathology, being characterized as mild steatosis. By the lipid peroxidation presented a greater accumulation of MDA, but an increase of GSH. However, the supply of the respective oils had a positive influence on different physiological mechanisms.