Bidirectional trans‐synaptic signaling is essential for the formation, maturation, and plasticity of synaptic connections. Synaptic cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) are prime drivers in shaping the identities of trans‐synaptic signaling pathways. A series of recent studies provide evidence that diverse presynaptic cell adhesion proteins dictate the regulation of specific synaptic properties in postsynaptic neurons. Focusing on mammalian synaptic CAMs, this article outlines several exemplary cases supporting this notion and highlights how these trans‐synaptic signaling pathways collectively contribute to the specificity and diversity (...) of neural circuit architecture. (shrink)

The 3-valued paraconsistent logic Ciore was developed by Carnielli, Marcos and de Amo under the name LFI2, in the study of inconsistent databases from the point of view of logics of formal inconsistency (LFIs). They also considered a first-order version of Ciore called LFI2*. The logic Ciore enjoys extreme features concerning propagation and retropropagation of the consistency operator: a formula is consistent if and only if some of its subformulas is consistent. In addition, Ciore is algebraizable in the sense of (...) Blok and Pigozzi. On the other hand, the logic LFI2* satisfies a somewhat counter-intuitive property: the universal and the existential quantifier are inter-definable by means of the paraconsistent negation, as it happens in classical first-order logic with respect to the classical negation. This feature seems to be unnatural, given that both quantifiers have the classical meaning in LFI2*, and that this logic does not satisfy the De Morgan laws with respect to its paraconsistent negation. The first goal of the present article is to introduce a first-order version of Ciore (which we call QCiore) preserving the spirit of Ciore, that is, without introducing unexpected relationships between the quantifiers. The second goal of the article is to adapt to QCiore the partial structures semantics for the first-order paraconsistent logic LPT1 introduced by Coniglio and Silvestrini, which generalizes the semantic notion of quasi-truth considered by Mikeberg, da Costa and Chuaqui. Finally, some important results of classical Model Theory are obtained for this logic, such as Robinson’s joint consistency theorem, amalgamation and interpolation. Although we focus on QCiore, this framework can be adapted to other 3-valued first-order LFIs. (shrink)

Belnap–Dunn’s relevance logic, \(\textsf{BD}\), was designed seeking a suitable logical device for dealing with multiple information sources which sometimes may provide inconsistent and/or incomplete pieces of information. \(\textsf{BD}\) is a four-valued logic which is both paraconsistent and paracomplete. On the other hand, De and Omori, while investigating what classical negation amounts to in a paracomplete and paraconsistent four-valued setting, proposed the expansion \(\textsf{BD2}\) of the four valued Belnap–Dunn logic by a classical negation. In this paper, we introduce a four-valued expansion (...) of BD called \({\textsf{BD}^\copyright }\), obtained by adding an unary connective \({\copyright }\,\ \) which is a consistency operator (in the sense of the Logics of Formal Inconsistency, _LFI_s). In addition, this operator is the unique one with the following features: it extends to \(\textsf{BD}\) the consistency operator of LFI1, a well-known three-valued _LFI_, still satisfying axiom _ciw_ (which states that any sentence is either consistent or contradictory), and allowing to define an undeterminedness operator (in the sense of Logic of Formal Undeterminedness, _LFU_s). Moreover, \({\textsf{BD}^\copyright }\) is maximal w.r.t. LFI1, and it is proved to be equivalent to BD2, up to signature. After presenting a natural Hilbert-style characterization of \({\textsf{BD}^\copyright }\) obtained by means of twist-structures semantics, we propose a first-order version of \({\textsf{BD}^\copyright }\) called \({\textsf{QBD}^\copyright }\), with semantics based on an appropriate notion of four-valued Tarskian-like structures called \(\textbf{4}\) -structures. We show that in \({\textsf{QBD}^\copyright }\), the existential and universal quantifiers are interdefinable in terms of the paracomplete and paraconsistent negation, and not by means of the classical negation. Finally, a Hilbert-style calculus for \({\textsf{QBD}^\copyright }\) is presented, proving the corresponding soundness and completeness theorems. (shrink)

Mixtecs and Zapotecs, originating from the Oaxaca area in Mexico, are among the largest indigenous groups of workers in California. Many adults in this community only access the health care system when sick and as a last resort. This article describes the development of a radionovela to inform the community about the importance of preventive health care. It was developed following the Sabido Method. The methodology to develop a radionovela may be of interest to other public health practitioners who want (...) to develop educational materials in an engaging format, especially for communities that rely on oral, not written information. (shrink)

Most growth models for complex networks consider networks comprising a single connected block or island, which contains all the nodes in the network. However, it has been demonstrated that some large complex networks have more than one island, with an island size distribution obeying a power-law function Is~s-α. This paper introduces a growth model that considers the emergence of islands as the network grows. The proposed model addresses the following two features: the probability that a new island is generated decreases (...) as the network grows and new islands are created with a constant probability at any stage of the growth. In the first case, the model produces an island size distribution that decays as a power-law Is~s-α with a fixed exponent α=1 and in-degree distribution that decays as a power-law Qi~i-γ with γ=2. When the second case is considered, the model describes island size and in-degree distributions that decay as a power-law with 2<α<∞ and 2<γ<∞, respectively. (shrink)

Maya Sabatello and coauthors, in “Structural Racism in the COVID-19 Pandemic,” have called our attention to how preexisting systemic racism in the United States has produced exactly the racial disp...

This paper explores food commoning through an ethnographic case study in Catalonia as our primary site while the Norwegian case is juxtaposed as a comparison, two agriculturally and economically different European countries. The ethnography analyses cooperation networks between organic food producers’ and consumers’ involving different nodes of community gardening initiatives, self-employed growers, local farmers and all of them under a unique cooperative integrating a community economy. The result it is a myriad of exchange practices ranging from reciprocity and barter to (...) market exchange without intermediaries through on-line platforms. Along these exchanges different options of currency intervene giving rise to novel social and cooperative relations. Similar initiatives in Norway show less variation and are less experimental regarding forms of payment but share similarities in relation to material articulations, concerns and forms of alternative practice. Although these novel forms do not represent a complete break from the more standardized supply chains, and hence from the oppositions/contradictions of production and consumption, the participants see themselves as contributing to a more general process of de-commodification of food. We explore the extent to which the meaning and moral values are mutually constituted in relation to socioeconomic exchanges and environmental caring that each person experiences based on different forms of cooperation and reciprocity. Food, we suggest, is more than a commodity on the market that we may influence through our role as consumers. It is a significant focal point connecting our lives to those of others that articulates one’s relations to society in a political manner. (shrink)

This paper explores food commoning through an ethnographic case study in Catalonia as our primary site while the Norwegian case is juxtaposed as a comparison, two agriculturally and economically different European countries. The ethnography analyses cooperation networks between organic food producers’ and consumers’ involving different nodes of community gardening initiatives, self-employed growers, local farmers and all of them under a unique cooperative integrating a community economy. The result it is a myriad of exchange practices ranging from reciprocity and barter to (...) market exchange without intermediaries through on-line platforms. Along these exchanges different options of currency intervene giving rise to novel social and cooperative relations. Similar initiatives in Norway show less variation and are less experimental regarding forms of payment but share similarities in relation to material articulations, concerns and forms of alternative practice. Although these novel forms do not represent a complete break from the more standardized supply chains, and hence from the oppositions/contradictions of production and consumption, the participants see themselves as contributing to a more general process of de-commodification of food. We explore the extent to which the meaning and moral values are mutually constituted in relation to socioeconomic exchanges and environmental caring that each person experiences based on different forms of cooperation and reciprocity. Food, we suggest, is more than a commodity on the market that we may influence through our role as consumers. It is a significant focal point connecting our lives to those of others that articulates one’s relations to society in a political manner. (shrink)

Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) has only lately included environmental sustainability as a key area for the social desirability of research and innovation. That is one of the reasons why just a few RRI projects and proposals include environmental sustainability, and Climate Change (CC) in particular. CC is one of the grand challenges of our time and, thus, this paper contributes to the operationalization of CC prevention in RRI. To this end, the tools employed against CC were identified. Tools originated (...) in corporate social responsibility and sustainable innovation which help to operationalize strategies against CC in RRI practice. Complementarily, the latest proposals by RRI projects and actors related to CC were reviewed. The findings of the document analysis and the web review were arranged in a framework intended for research and innovation that has an indirect but relevant negative impact due to CC. Thus, four main strategies for CC prevention in RRI were determined: a voluntary integration of the aims, a life cycle perspective, open access databases and key performance indicators, and stakeholder management. The article is finished acknowledging diverse barriers hindering the operationalization of CC prevention in RRI, and we introduce future avenues for research in this area. (shrink)

The INBIOSA project brings together a group of experts across many disciplines who believe that science requires a revolutionary transformative step in order to address many of the vexing challenges presented by the world. It is INBIOSA’s purpose to enable the focused collaboration of an interdisciplinary community of original thinkers. This paper sets out the case for support for this effort. The focus of the transformative research program proposal is biology-centric. We admit that biology to date has been more fact-oriented (...) and less theoretical than physics. However, the key leverageable idea is that careful extension of the science of living systems can be more effectively applied to some of our most vexing modern problems than the prevailing scheme, derived from abstractions in physics. While these have some universal application and demonstrate computational advantages, they are not theoretically mandated for the living. A new set of mathematical abstractions derived from biology can now be similarly extended. This is made possible by leveraging new formal tools to understand abstraction and enable computability. [The latter has a much expanded meaning in our context from the one known and used in computer science and biology today, that is "by rote algorithmic means", since it is not known if a living system is computable in this sense (Mossio et al., 2009).] Two major challenges constitute the effort. The first challenge is to design an original general system of abstractions within the biological domain. The initial issue is descriptive leading to the explanatory. There has not yet been a serious formal examination of the abstractions of the biological domain. What is used today is an amalgam; much is inherited from physics (via the bridging abstractions of chemistry) and there are many new abstractions from advances in mathematics (incentivized by the need for more capable computational analyses). Interspersed are abstractions, concepts and underlying assumptions “native” to biology and distinct from the mechanical language of physics and computation as we know them. A pressing agenda should be to single out the most concrete and at the same time the most fundamental process-units in biology and to recruit them into the descriptive domain. Therefore, the first challenge is to build a coherent formal system of abstractions and operations that is truly native to living systems. Nothing will be thrown away, but many common methods will be philosophically recast, just as in physics relativity subsumed and reinterpreted Newtonian mechanics. -/- This step is required because we need a comprehensible, formal system to apply in many domains. Emphasis should be placed on the distinction between multi-perspective analysis and synthesis and on what could be the basic terms or tools needed. The second challenge is relatively simple: the actual application of this set of biology-centric ways and means to cross-disciplinary problems. In its early stages, this will seem to be a “new science”. This White Paper sets out the case of continuing support of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for transformative research in biology and information processing centered on paradigm changes in the epistemological, ontological, mathematical and computational bases of the science of living systems. Today, curiously, living systems cannot be said to be anything more than dissipative structures organized internally by genetic information. There is not anything substantially different from abiotic systems other than the empirical nature of their robustness. We believe that there are other new and unique properties and patterns comprehensible at this bio-logical level. The report lays out a fundamental set of approaches to articulate these properties and patterns, and is composed as follows. -/- Sections 1 through 4 (preamble, introduction, motivation and major biomathematical problems) are incipient. Section 5 describes the issues affecting Integral Biomathics and Section 6 -- the aspects of the Grand Challenge we face with this project. Section 7 contemplates the effort to formalize a General Theory of Living Systems (GTLS) from what we have today. The goal is to have a formal system, equivalent to that which exists in the physics community. Here we define how to perceive the role of time in biology. Section 8 describes the initial efforts to apply this general theory of living systems in many domains, with special emphasis on crossdisciplinary problems and multiple domains spanning both “hard” and “soft” sciences. The expected result is a coherent collection of integrated mathematical techniques. Section 9 discusses the first two test cases, project proposals, of our approach. They are designed to demonstrate the ability of our approach to address “wicked problems” which span across physics, chemistry, biology, societies and societal dynamics. The solutions require integrated measurable results at multiple levels known as “grand challenges” to existing methods. Finally, Section 10 adheres to an appeal for action, advocating the necessity for further long-term support of the INBIOSA program. -/- The report is concluded with preliminary non-exclusive list of challenging research themes to address, as well as required administrative actions. The efforts described in the ten sections of this White Paper will proceed concurrently. Collectively, they describe a program that can be managed and measured as it progresses. (shrink)

BackgroundThis article aims to contribute to a better conceptualization of pain and suffering by providing non-essential and non-naturalistic definitions of both phenomena. Contributions of classical evidence-based medicine, the humanistic turn in medicine, as well as the phenomenology and narrative theories of suffering and pain, together with certain conceptions of the person beyond them are critically discussed with such purpose.MethodsA philosophical methodology is used, based on the review of existent literature on the topic and the argumentation in favor of what are (...) found as better definitions of suffering and pain.ResultsPain can be described in neurological terms but cognitive awareness, interpretation, behavioral dispositions, as well as cultural and educational factors have a decisive influence on pain perception. Suffering is proposed to be defined as an unpleasant or even anguishing experience, severely affecting a person at a psychophysical and existential level. Pain and suffering are considered unpleasant. However, the provided definitions neither include the idea that pain and suffering can attack and even destroy the self nor the idea that they can constructively expand the self; both perspectives can b e equally useful for managing pain and suffering, but they are not defining features of the same. Including the existential dimension in the definition of suffering highlights the relevance of suffering in life and its effect on one’s own attachment to the world. An understanding of pain and suffering life experiences is proposed, meaning that they are considered aspects of a person’s life, and the self is the ever-changing sum of these experiences.ConclusionsThe provided definitions will be useful to the identification of pain and suffering, to the discussion of how to relieve them, and to a better understanding of how they are expressed and experienced. They lay the groundwork for further research in all these areas, with the twofold aim of a) avoiding epistemological mistakes and moral injustices, and b) highlighting the limitations of medicine in the treatment of suffering and pain. (shrink)

This text explores the problem of transcendental stupidity in Sigmund Freud, Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida’s works, seeking to combine it with (1) the paradoxical figure of Oedipus (the original complex) in psychoanalytical and philosophical tradition and (2) the symptomatic situation of some important animals (wolf and dog, symbols of wild and domestic life [i.e.: Freud’s Wolfs, Freud’s Chow-Chows]) in analyses and therapies. The case of the Man of the Wolves (der Wolfmann), the case of Mr. Sergei K. Pankejeff described (...) in Aus der Geschichte einer infantilen Neurose, a fundamental dream in contemporary culture history, would be the point of departure. (shrink)

In early 2020, in-person data collection dramatically slowed or was completely halted across the world as many labs were forced to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Developmental researchers who assess looking time were forced to re-think their methods of data collection. While a variety of remote or online platforms are available for gathering behavioral data outside of the typical lab setting, few are specifically designed for collecting and processing looking time data in infants and young children. To address these (...) challenges, our lab developed several novel approaches for continuing data collection and coding for a remotely administered audiovisual looking time protocol. First, we detail a comprehensive approach for successfully administering the Multisensory Attention Assessment Protocol, developed by our lab to assess multisensory attention skills. The MAAP is administered from a distance by using Zoom, Gorilla Experiment Builder, an internet connection, and a home computer. This new data collection approach has the advantage that participants can be tested in their homes. We discuss challenges and successes in implementing our approach for remote testing and data collection during an ongoing longitudinal project. Second, we detail an approach for estimating gaze direction and duration collected remotely from webcam recordings using a post processing toolkit and demonstrate its effectiveness and precision. However, because OpenFace derives gaze estimates without translating them to an external frame of reference, we developed a machine learning approach to overcome this limitation. Thus, third, we trained a ML algorithm [] to classify gaze estimates from OpenFace with respect to areas of interest on the participant's screen. We then demonstrate reliability between this approach and traditional coding approaches. The combination of OpenFace and ML will provide a method to automate the coding of looking time for data collected remotely. Finally, we outline a series of best practices for developmental researchers conducting remote data collection for looking time studies. (shrink)

Abordar el tema del hombre es de suyo arriesgado, teniendo en cuenta que su dinámica de búsqueda constante limita la reflexión filosófica al campo de los hechos históricos; cabe afirmar también que toda acción humana, tratada con cierto rigor y sistematicidad requiere acudir a la filosofía para indagar, entre otras cosas, por sus fundamentos. Este es el caso del proceso educativo, una realidad que involucra al hombre en sociedad y le ofrece las bases para tomar conciencia de su “ser persona”; (...) así, la antropología filosófica se postula como la reflexión sobre el hombre desde su realidad dinámica e interpersonal de relación consigo mismo y con el entorno que le rodea. Es necesario, pues, buscar el marco argumentativo del hecho y del discurso que constituyen el proceso educativo, labor propia de la filosofía de la educación, y caracterizada como “el saber racional y crítico de las condiciones de posibilidad de la realidad experimental educativa en su conjunto” (Fullat, 1992, pp. 89-90). Desde esta doble perspectiva, se considerarán los fundamentos del proceso educativo. (shrink)

BackgroundThe use of great apes (GA) in invasive biomedical research is one of the most debated topics in animal ethics. GA are, thus far, the only animal group that has frequently been banned from invasive research; yet some believe that these bans could inaugurate a broader trend towards greater restrictions on the use of primates and other animals in research. Despite ongoing academic and policy debate on this issue, there is no comprehensive overview of the reasons advanced for or against (...) restricting invasive research with GA. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review of the reasons reported in the academic literature on this topic.MethodsSeven databases were searched for articles published in English. Two authors screened the titles, abstracts, and full texts of all articles. Two journals specialized in animal ethics, and the reference lists of included articles were subsequently also reviewed.ResultsWe included 60 articles, most of which were published between 2006 and 2016. Twenty-five articles argued for a total ban of GA research, 21 articles defended partial restrictions, and 14 articles argued against restrictions. Overall, we identified 110 reason types, 74 for, and 36 against, restricting GA research. Reasons were grouped into nine domains: moral standing, science, welfare, public and expert attitudes, retirement and conservation, respect and rights, financial costs, law and legal status, and longer-term consequences.ConclusionOur review generated five main findings. First, there is a trend in the academic debate in favor of restricting GA research that parallels worldwide policy changes in the same direction. Second, in several domains (e.g., moral standing, and respect and rights), the reasons were rather one-sided in favor of restrictions. Third, some prominent domains (e.g., science and welfare) featured considerable engagement between opposing positions. Fourth, there is low diversity and independence among authors, including frequent potential conflicts of interests in articles defending a strong position (i.e., favoring a total ban or arguing against restrictions). Fifth, scholarly discussion was not the norm, as reflected in a high proportion of non-peer-reviewed articles and authors affiliated to non-academic institutions. (shrink)

En el artículo, se sigue el objetivo de revisar los planteamientos del español radicado en México, Adolfo Sánchez, fallecido en 2011, luego de una destacada actividad investigativa en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Sus reflexiones en torno a la estética de Marx llevaron a Sánchez a plantear asuntos como la praxis de la creación artística, en que el realismo socialista que busca el reflejo del mundo y la ideología en la obra resulta perjudiciales para la tarea estética e, incluso, (...) pueden coartar la libertad del creador. Sánchez se preocupa por incluir en la praxis estética la acción interpretativa del lector en que el placer por una obra nos conecta con la significación de lo humano, raíz del sentido de la belleza. De tal modo, en la expresión estética de una obra, las mediaciones culturales e ideológicas no se dan ausentes, ya que las ideas culturales, políticas o filosóficas dejan huellas en la creación del artista. (shrink)

From the most prominent thinkers in Latin American philosophy, literature, politics, and social science comes a challenge to conventional theories of globalization. The contributors to this volume imagine a discourse in which revolution requires no temporalized march of progress or takeovers of state power but instead aims at local control and the material conditions for human dignity.

Louis de La Forge, partiendo de las sugestiones de Descartes, esboza una teoría de la imitación de las pasiones en sus Anotaciones al Tratado del Hombre que contrasta con los elementos que él mismo propone en su Tratado del Espíritu del Hombre. El análisis de estas dos obras permite la reconstrucción de dos tipos de inclinaciones miméticas sobre las cuales se asientan las bases de lo que en el milieu cartesiano va a ser considerado como un contagio pasional o afectivo.

El discurso primordialista sobre el origen de las identidades sociales etno-nacionales sigue latiendo en algunos enfoques históricos, antropológicos, políticos y jurídicos de las sociedades modernas, camuflado en otras formas iusnaturalistas y biologicistas de concebir los atributos culturales, étnicos, religiosos, conductuales, e incluso económicos de los pueblos. Este artículo pretende presentar, por el contrario, la construcción de las identidades nacionales desde el punto de vista modernista y analizar su papel como discurso que pretende reforzar estructuras de poder, producidas porque tienen utilidad (...) estratégica para el logro de bienes materiales o políticos, formalmente en nombre del grupo, pero de hecho solamente con objeto de dar ventaja a los líderes o las élites. Cuando llevan aparejado un carácter político, las identidades nacionales, culturales y étnicas son susceptibles de provocar conflictos violentos, la naturalización de la violencia y la deshumanización de otros grupos tienen lugar a menudo cuando de conflictos etno-nacionalistas se trata. (shrink)

Let ‘semantic relevance’ be the thesis that the wide semantic properties of representational mental states (like beliefs and desires) are causally relevant to behavior. A popular way of arguing for semantic relevance runs as follows: start with a sufficient counterfactual condition for causal or explanatory relevance, and show that wide semantic properties meet it with respect to behavior (e.g., Loewer & Lepore (1987,1989), Rescorla (2014), Yablo (2003)).This paper discusses an in‐principle limitation of this strategy: even the most sophisticated counterfactual criteria (...) systematically misclassify irrelevant properties as relevant when they stand in certain kinds of modal co‐variation or ‘entanglement’ relations to genuinely relevant properties. This entanglement problem, I argue, is more general and more serious than proponents of the counterfactual strategy have recognized: it threatens recent interventionist arguments for semantic relevance, and is not easily solved by appeal to proportionality or naturalness. I end by suggesting that proponents of semantic relevance may need to shift their attention from patterns of counterfactuals to the lawful psychological generalizations that explain them. (shrink)

Desde el descubrimiento en 1935 del fenómeno del entrelazamiento cuántico, se han generado interrogantes y postulados que están sin resolver, pero que han desmantelado las bases de la física clásica. Tomando como base el comportamiento recíproco de determinadas partículas, independientemente de su distancia, se asume la existencia de un estado con una competencia de onda única para todo el sistema, lo que obliga a aceptar nuevos conceptos como la no localidad y la no separabilidad. En la actualidad son cada vez (...) más los creadores que desde diferentes soportes y medios se han acercado al análisis del entrelazamiento como una nueva fuente de inspiración e investigación artística. De hecho, se plantea la plataforma artística como un recurso para divulgar este fenómeno, junto con sus teorías y misterios, familiarizando al espectador con una de las manifestaciones más definitorias para el progreso de la humanidad. (shrink)

Los procesos culturales contemporáneos nos colocan –entre muchas otras– ante experiencias muy específicas en torno al problema de las memorias. Los procesos acelerados de una globalización que parecen homogeneizar la casi totalidad de las experiencias humanas, se ven confrontados con la reivindicación de particularismos, y de identidades que afincan sus «fundamentos» en las memorias colectivas e individuales. Más allá de la pertinencia y de la eficacia de estas reivindicaciones, la pregunta que se quiere rescatar –justamente porque lasuposición de una respuesta (...) obvia no es evidente– es ésta: ¿De qué memorias estamos hablando cuando su cultivo, su cuidado, su promoción y su gestión aparecen como una especie de obsesión en nuestra situación actual? (shrink)

Mirativity is a grammatical category or a linguistic strategy that makes explicit the surprising aspect of a piece of information. Different mirativity strategies appear in different languages. Evidentiality is a grammatical category that explicitly expresses the source of information, i.e. if something has been seen, heard or inferred. Whether mirativity forms part of evidentiality is an open question. An agent makes use of a mirativity marker when she or he expresses something about a surprising fact with respect to her or (...) his background knowledge. But there are different kinds of mirativity markers. Some of them are simple and direct and others, more complex, involve inferential processes. Here, we focus on complex mirativity and we compare it with inferred evidentials and deferred realizations. Our proposal goes beyond the purely linguistic analysis, since we try to interpret mirativity, and its role in interaction, as forming part of or involving a particular kind of inference, namely abduction. Mirativity can be used to express the surprising state that triggers an abductive reasoning but it can also encapsulate its result in such a way that it can be understood in relation to evidentiality. Thus, at least in some cases of complex mirativity, mirativity may convey indication about the source of information. Interesting for studies on dialogue is that they also indicate the degree of commitment of the speakers with the content of their own utterances. (shrink)

Learners exposed to an artificial language recognize its abstract structural regularities when instantiated in a novel vocabulary (e.g., Gómez, Gerken, & Schvaneveldt, 2000; Tunney & Altmann, 2001). We asked whether such sensitivity accelerates subsequent learning, and enables acquisition of more complex structure. In Experiment 1, pre-exposure to a category-induction language of the form aX bY sped subsequent learning when the language is instantiated in a different vocabulary. In Experiment 2, while naíve learners did not acquire an acX bcY language, in (...) which aX and bY co-occurrence regularities were separated by a c-element, prior experience with an aX bY language provided some benefit. In Experiment 3 we replicated this finding with a 24-hour delay between learning phases, and controlled for prior experience with the aX bY language's prosodic and phonological characteristics. These findings suggest that learners, and the structure they can acquire, change as a function of experience. (shrink)

Epícteto, el filósofo estoico del siglo II de la e.c., nos presenta su visión ética en este discurso Sobre el embellecimiento . Se apoya en los preceptos socráticos del “Conócete a ti mismo” y “Cuídate a ti mismo”, pero los complementa maravillosamente con el “Ordénate a ti mismo”. Es una visión en la que la ética y la estética son embellecidas por la cosmética.

La presencia e integración de la investigación cualitativa a los protocolos de investigación biomédica ha cobrado cada vez mayor relevancia, por la importancia de la antropología cultural. El caso particular de la etnografía adquiere aún más preeminencia en relación con la definición de riesgo para el sujeto de investigación. El presente artículo expone las principales características de la investigación etnográfica que deben ser evaluadas por un comité de ética de la investigación, y define una serie de recomendaciones para la evaluación (...) del riesgo para los sujetos que se someten a este tipo de estudio. Los miembros de los Comités de Ética en Investigación deben tener en cuenta la etnografía para realizar a cabalidad su función. (shrink)

El presente artículo busca, tras una breve mirada del significado histórico de la ciudad, de situarla en el ámbito de la Teoría de las Necesidades Humanas, argumentando cómo la ciudad ha sido el satisfactor sinérgico más importante de las necesidades. Considerando que las necesidades son universales e identificables, se muestra cómo la ciudad es el lugar donde mejor se han satisfecho éstas, y cómo una de ellas, la participación, obtiene un especial significado dado su carácter sinérgico y transversal. No obstante, (...) el desbordamiento de la ciudad con el desarrollo del capitalismo la ha desmembrado, zonificando sus funciones y segregando a los diferentes grupos sociales, perdiéndose el espacio público como espacio político. Reconstruir una democracia urbana, precisa de una (re)vuelta a la ciudad considerando múltiples dimensiones del cambio que son a su vez condiciones y síntomas práxicos para reconstruir el espacio público como espacio político. (shrink)

En los últimos años y en particular en el primer lustro del siglo XXI hemos asistido a sucesivos e inquietantes acontecimientos de muy distinta naturaleza, pero entrelazados entre sí, de enorme complejidad y gran impacto, que exigen respuestas urgentes e igualmente complejas. Estos acontecimientos (catástrofes naturales, grandes atentados terroristas, guerras globales denominadas “preventivas”, etc.) que se producen en un contexto de globalización, más que otra cosa van confirmando una sociedad del riesgo en la que nos vamos instalando haciéndonos a todos (...) los seres vulnerables. Una sociedad que cabalga en un modelo desbocadamente entrópico e irremediablemente mundial, pero crecientemente injusto, desigual e insostenible. Los movimientos sociales, y particularmente los movimientos antisistémicos, considerados como sujetos históricos de cambio, tienen ante sí múltiples desafíos para reorientar y construir un nuevo paradigma. En este texto, a la luz de las respuestas inteligentes(frente a las respuestas desesperadas), de las nuevas experiencias participativas, de la emergencia de un sujeto ético, de las nuevas alianzas que intuimos en, por ejemplo, los Foros Sociales Mundiales; se quiere dar cuenta de la convergencia posible, probable, necesaria para asumir la complejidad de la acción colectiva. Cuatro son los desafíos que abstraemos de las nuevas experiencias societarias y todas ellas tienen que ver con la calidad de la democracia, de una democracia reflexiva y por tanto compleja: la democracia participativa, la democracia económica sustentada en la economía social y solidaria, la democracia ambiental fundamentada en la sostenibilidad y la democracia cultural expresada en un sentido de la interculturalidad. (shrink)

Se analiza en el presente artículo la historia del Estado-nación, artefacto político-jurídico construido por la cultura occidental que contiene y fija las tensiones dentro de su marco, y no es en general dinamizante de los derechos de ciudadanía. Señala que el último exponente histórico del Estado-nación es el Estado del Bienestar, estrechamente vinculado a la democracia representativa que es incapaz de incorporar plenamente a los ciudadanos en los asuntos públicos, motivando, por tanto, una ciudadanía de naturaleza pasiva. Argumenta que enfrentamos (...) una pérdida de legitimidad del Estado del Bienestar y que aparece una cuarta generación de derechos, de la mano de “nuevos movimientos sociales” Pone de relieve que la pérdida de operatividad y legitimidad del Estado-nación, impele a extensionar e intensionar la democracia, lo que demanda una nueva cultura política. (shrink)