El artículo parte del análisis camusiano del problema del mal, en diálogo con las respuestas dadas por el Gnosticismo griego y el cristianismo. En este contexto, se habla del fracaso de las teodiceas, ejemplificaciones de lo que Camus considera la «rebeldía metafísica». A continuación, se reflexiona sobre dos categorías existenciales, que constituyen contraargumentos ante la condena de la naturaleza humana por parte de las versiones más ortodoxas del cristianismo y las filosofías racionalistas. Camus construye una antropodicea cuyo eje está en (...) una rebeldía humanista y transformadora, limitada en su praxis y aspiraciones por valores morales que ella misma genera y que confieren un sentido relativo a la existencia. El artículo finaliza con una reflexión en torno a la educación como poderoso instrumento de transformación social. (shrink)

Pineda Canabal, Aníbal (2021)Le concept de non-contemporanéité dans la philosophie d’Ernst BlochHildesheim: OLMS, 355 p.ISBN 978-3-487-16067-2.

The production of good sound generation in the violin is a complex task that requires coordination and spatiotemporal control of bowing gestures. The use of motion-capture technologies to improve performance or reduce injury risks in the area of kinesiology is becoming widespread. The combination of motion accuracy and sound quality feedback has the potential of becoming an important aid in violin learning. In this study, we evaluate motion-capture and sound-quality analysis technologies developed inside the context of the TELMI, a technology-enhanced (...) music learning project. We analyzed the sound and bow motion of 50 participants with no prior violin experience while learning to produce a stable sound in the violin. Participants were divided into two groups: the experimental group received real-time visual feedback both on kinematics and sound quality, while participants in the control group practiced without any type of external help. An additional third group of violin experts performed the same task for comparative purposes. After the practice session, all groups were evaluated in a transfer phase without feedback. At the practice phase, the experimental group improved their bowing kinematics in comparison to the control group, but this was at the expense of impairing the sound quality of their performance. At the retention phase, the experimental group showed better results in sound quality, especially concerning control of sound dynamics. Besides, we found that the expert group improved the stability of their sound while using the technology. All in all, these results emphasize the importance of feedback technologies in learning complex tasks, such as musical instrument learning. (shrink)

The COVID‐19 pandemic is responsible for millions of deaths worldwide yet its origin remains unclear. Two potential scenarios of how infection of humans initially occurred include zoonotic transfer from wild animals and a leak of the pathogen from a research laboratory. The Wuhan wet markets where wild animals are sold represent a strong scenario for zoonotic transfer. However, isolation of SARS‐CoV‐2 or its immediate predecessor from wild animals in their natural environment has yet to be documented. Due to incomplete evidence (...) for a zoonotic origin, a laboratory origin is plausible. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is at the epicenter of the pandemic and their work has included manipulation of wild‐type coronavirus to enable infection of human cells. Although stronger evidence supports the zoonotic transfer, inconclusive reports maintain the laboratory leak hypothesis alive. It is imperative to reach a factual conclusion to prevent future pandemics. (shrink)

Auditory-guided vocal learning is a mechanism that operates both in humans and other animal species making us capable to imitate arbitrary sounds. Both auditory memories and auditory feedback interact to guide vocal learning. This may explain why it is easier for humans to imitate the pitch of a human voice than the pitch of a synthesized sound. In this study, we compared the effects of two different feedback modalities in learning pitch-matching abilities using a synthesized pure tone in 47 participants (...) with no prior music experience. Participants were divided into three groups: a feedback group receiving real-time visual feedback of their pitch as well as knowledge of results; an equal-timbre group receiving additional auditory feedback of the target note with a similar timbre to the instrument being used ; and a control group practicing without any feedback or knowledge of results. An additional fourth group of violin experts performed the same task for comparative purposes. All groups were posteriorly evaluated in a transfer phase. Both experimental groups improved their intonation abilities with the synthesized sound after receiving feedback. Participants from the equal-timber group seemed as capable as the feedback group of producing the required pitch with the voice after listening to the human voice, but not with the violin. In addition, only participants receiving real-time visual feedback learned and retained in the transfer phase the mapping between the synthesized pitch and its correspondence with the produced vocal or violin pitch. It is suggested that both the effect of an objective external reward, together with the experience of exploring the pitch space with their instrument in an explicit manner, helped participants to understand how to control their pitch production, strengthening their schemas, and favoring retention. (shrink)

The recruitment of respondents belonging to ethnic minorities poses important challenges in social and health research. This paper reflects on the enablers and barriers to recruitment that we encountered in our research work with persons belonging to ethnic minorities. Additionally, we applied the Matching Model of Recruitment, a theoretical framework concerning minority recruitment, to guide our reflection. We also explored its applicability as a research design tool. In assessing our research experience, we learned that minority recruitment in social and health (...) research is influenced by the social context of all key players involved in the research. Also, there are enablers and barriers within that social context facilitating or delaying the recruitment process. The main enablers to recruit respondents belonging to ethnic minorities include working with community agencies and gatekeepers who share a common vision with researchers and the latter’s ability to gain the trust of potential respondents. The main barriers include demanding too much from these same community agencies and gatekeepers and ignoring factors that could delay the completion of the research. Although we found the Matching Model of Recruitment to be an effective tool in assessing the processes of recruiting respondents belonging to ethnic minorities, further empirical research is needed to explore its usefulness during the research planning phase. (shrink)

Histamine is a multifunctional biogenic amine with relevant roles in intercellular communication, inflammatory processes and highly prevalent pathologies. Histamine biosynthesis depends on a single decarboxylation step, carried out by a PLP-dependent histidine decarboxylase activity (EC 4.1.1.22), an enzyme that still remains to be fully characterized. Nevertheless, during the last few years, important advances have been made in this field, including the generation and validation of the first three-dimensional model of the enzyme, which allows us to revisit previous results and conclusions. (...) This essay provides a comprehensive review of the current knowledge of the structural and functional characteristics of mammalian histidine decarboxylase. BioEssays 27:57–63, 2005. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Reading and reading comprehension is of great importance for students to be able to grasp the main idea of what they are reading, for which reading strategies are needed. The objective of the research is to analyze and describe the perspectives of the reading strategies they use and how to help entering university students to face their professional studies. The methodology used is descriptive and correlational among its elements, it is of cross-sectional and quantitative approach whose sample are university students (...) entering a professional career, 1181 students were surveyed through an online survey. (shrink)

The search for a systems‐level picture of metabolism as a web of molecular interactions provides a paradigmatic example of how the methods used to characterize a system can bias the interpretation of its functional meaning. Metabolic maps have been analyzed using novel techniques from network theory, revealing some non‐trivial, functionally relevant properties. These include a small‐world structure and hierarchical modularity. However, as discussed here, some of these properties might actually result from an inappropriate way of defining network interactions. Starting from (...) the so‐called bipartite organization of metabolism, where the two meaningful subsets (reactions and metabolites) are considered, most current works use only one of the subsets by means of so‐called graph projections. Unfortunately, projected graphs often ignore relevant biological and chemical constraints, thus leading to statistical artifacts. Some of these drawbacks and alternative approaches need to be properly addressed. (shrink)

The ontology of Ortega y Gasset crystallized slowly between the years of 1934 and 1945. These were years of exile, years of war and financial insecurity that forced him to move from country to country. His health too was sorely tested on various occasions during this period. Remoteness from intellectual resources, familiar libraries, co-laborers, were doubtlessly disturbing obstacles to his progress. Ortega was fifty in 1933; yet for all these hindrances the next decade of his life was his most ambitiously (...) productive. (shrink)

The recent development of single molecule detection techniques has opened new horizons for the study of individual macromolecules under physiological conditions. Conformational subpopulations, internal dynamics and activity of single biomolecules, parameters that have so far been hidden in large ensemble averages, are now being unveiled. Herein, we review a particular attractive solution‐based single molecule technique, fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). This time‐averaging fluctuation analysis which is usually performed in Confocal setups combines maximum sensitivity with high statistical confidence. FCS has proven to (...) be a very versatile and powerful tool for detection and temporal investigation of biomolecules at ultralow concentrations on surfaces, in solution, and in living cells. The introduction of dual‐color cross‐correlation and two‐photon excitation in FCS experiments is currently increasing the number of promising applications of FCS to biological research. BioEssays 24:758–764, 2002. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

All the biological membranes contain oxidoreduction systems actively involved in their bioenergetics. Plasma membrane redox systems seem to be ubiquitous and they have been related to several important functions, including not only their role in cell bioenergetics, but also in cell defense through the generation of reactive oxygen species, in iron uptake, in the control of cell growth and proliferation and in signal transduction. In the last few years, an increasing number of mechanistic and molecular studies have deeply widened our (...) knowledge on the function of these plasma membrane redox systems. The aim of this review is to summarize what is currently known about the components and physiological roles of these systems. (shrink)

The reprogramming of metabolism has been identified as one of the hallmarks of cancer. It is becoming more and more frequent to connect other diseases with metabolic reprogramming. This article aims to argue that metabolic reprogramming is not driven by disease but instead is the main hallmark of metabolism, based on its dynamic behavior that allows it to continuously adapt to changes in the internal and external conditions.

Angiogenesis plays an essential role in tumor growth, invasion and metastasis. After initial pessimism about the usefulness of the antiangiogenic therapeutic approach for cancer, interest has increased in the development of antiangiogenic compounds after the first clinical approval of an antiangiogenic therapy. The anti‐vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) antibody bevacizumab has recently been approved for use in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic colorectal and non‐small cell lung cancer patients. However, no survival benefit has been demonstrated in anti‐VEGF (...) monotherapy trials, probably due to the high complexity of tumor angiogenesis regulation. Experimental and clinical data, including the approval of the multitargeted drugs sunitinib and sorafenib, indicate that exciting results, including tumor regression, can be expected from the combined targeting of different pathways in the tumor angiogenesis scenario. Several obstacles, including the high cost of new molecular targeted drugs make this therapeutic approach difficult. BioEssays 29:1159–1168, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Sobre la base de las Lecciones de Erlangen, se trata de analizar cuál es el procedimiento por el que se construye en la filosofía de Schelling el concepto de libertad. Libertad que, según el Freiheitsschrift, es la capacidad de elegir entre el bien y el mal, no es en el fondo más que el procedimiento por el que el fundamento de la ciencia y el principio de identidad quedan divididos. Esta división no es en cambio una fisura que marca la (...) independencia entre ambos términos, sino que, al contrario, fundamento e identidad guardan una relación de antecedente y de consecuente respectivamente, ocupan dos tareas, dos competencias distintas, y cuyo trabajo conjunto y final es precisamente fruto de la libertad. (shrink)

Ressenya / Reseña / Review Benz, Ernst 2016, Mística y Romanticismo. Las fuentes místicas del Romanticismo alemán, Madrid: Siruela. ISBN 978-84-16638-25-3, 180 páginas.

Nos valemos del concepto de experiencia para tratar de demostrar que la relación entre ésta y lo ideal es indisoluble en Aristóteles y en Schelling en el conjunto de su producción. No existe entre lo real y lo ideal, por tanto, un orden de prioridad en lo tocante a las partes de su sistema, sino que únicamente asumen un orden de anterioridad y posterioridad por lo que hace a una necesidad de tipo metodológico. Con este análisis, por tanto, queremos demostrar (...) que el orden de la experiencia y de lo ideal no es excluyente, sino que, al contario, están en un orden de dependencia gracias al cual tenemos como resultado una filosofía absoluta o la filosofía sin más, lo cual elimina cualquier unilateralismo que quiera conceder cualquier primacía ya bien a lo ideal o a lo real o la existencia en la filosofía de ambos autores. (shrink)