A set A of vertices of a graph G is called d-scattered in G if no two d-neighborhoods of (distinct) vertices of A intersect. In other words, A is d-scattered if no two distinct vertices of A have distance at most 2d. This notion was isolated in the context of finite model theory by Ajtai and Gurevich and recently it played a prominent role in the study of homomorphism preservation theorems for special classes of structures (such as minor closed classes). (...) This in turn led to the notions of wide, almost wide and quasi-wide classes of graphs. It has been proved previously that minor closed classes and classes of graphs with locally forbidden minors are examples of such classes and thus (relativized) homomorphism preservation theorem holds for them. In this paper we show that (more general) classes with bounded expansion and (newly defined) classes with bounded local expansion and even (very general) nowhere dense classes are quasi wide. This not only strictly generalizes the previous results but it also provides new proofs and algorithms for some of the old results. It appears that bounded expansion and nowhere dense classes are perhaps a proper setting for investigation of wide-type classes as in several instances we obtain a structural characterization. This also puts classes of bounded expansion in the new context. Our motivation stems from finite dualities. As a corollary we obtain that any homomorphism closed first order definable property restricted to a bounded expansion class is a restricted duality. (shrink)

IntroductionCardiology is characterized by its state-of-the-art biomedical technology and the predominance of Evidence-Based Medicine. This predominance makes it difficult for healthcare professionals to deal with the ethical dilemmas that emerge in this subspecialty. This paper is a first endeavor to empirically investigate the axiological foundations of the healthcare professionals in a cardiology hospital. Our pilot study selected, as the target population, cardiology personnel not only because of their difficult ethical deliberations but also because of the stringent conditions in which they (...) have to make them. Therefore, there is an urgent need to reconsider clinical ethics and Value-Based Medicine. This study proposes a qualitative analysis of the values and the virtues of healthcare professionals in a cardiology hospital in order to establish how the former impact upon the medical and ethical decisions made by the latter.ResultsWe point out the need for strengthening the roles of healthcare personnel as educators and guidance counselors in order to meet the ends of medicine, as well as the need for an ethical discernment that is compatible with our results, namely, that the ethical values developed by healthcare professionals stem from their life history as well as their professional education.ConclusionWe establish the kind of actions, communication skills and empathy that are required to build a stronger patient-healthcare professional relationship, which at the same time improves prognosis, treatment efficiency and therapeutic adhesion. (shrink)

Através de algumas considerações de caráter teológico, pretendemos mostrar que a festa da Virgem Maria de Guadalupe tem profundo enraizamento no coração do povo de Deus, por duas razões fundamentais: Primeiro: a devoção à "Guadalupana" nos remete à Palavra de Deus, que instrui nossa fé; e segundo, tal devoção se funda em uma verdadeira epifania profética. A reflexão teológica se sustenta em algumas idéias centrais: Guadalupe permite a reestruturação da consciência indígena. Analogicamente, Guadalupe permite nomear a Deus em três modos: (...) cristológico, trinitário e antropológico. Guadalupe, gravada na Tilma (manto) de Juan Diego, desvela um mundo como mundo de Maria que não é possível habitar. Na narrativa do Nican Mopohua discernimos uma Simbólica da Bondade originária , que manifesta o amor misericordioso do Pai no Filho, com a figura do Servo Sofredor como pano de fundo. Finalmente, Guadalupe remete ao texto bíblico, por ser interpretação do mesmo e sinal de sua recepção. A Virgem de Guadalupe assume dessa forma as características de um verdadeiro profeta. Palavras-chave: Festa; sagrado; sociedade; religião. Resumen Es nuestro propósito mostrar, a través de algunas consideraciones de caracter teológico, que la Fiesta en torno de la Virgen María de Guadalupe tiene un arraigo profundo en el corazón del pueblo de Dios por dos razones fundamentales: Primero, la devoción a la Guadalupana nos remite a la Palabra de Dios, que instruye nuestra Fe; y segundo, la devoción se funda en una verdadera epifanía profética. La reflexión teológica se basa en algunas ideas fuerza: Guadalupe permite la reestructuración de la conciencia indígena. Guadalupe analógicamente permite nombrar a Dios en tres modos, cristológico, trinitario y antropológico. Guadalupe, grabada en la Tilma de Juan Diego, despliega un mundo como mundo de María que nos es posible habitar. En la narrativa del Nican Mopohua discernimos una Simbólica de la Bondad originaria , que manifiesta el amor misericordioso del Padre en el Hijo, con la figura del Siervo Sufriente como telón de fondo. Guadalupe es, finalmente, referencia al texto bíblico, por ser interpretación del mismo y señal de su recepción. La Virgen de Guadalupe asume las características fundamentales de un verdadero profeta. Palabras clave: Fiesta; sagrado; sociedad; religión.Through some theological observations, we intend to show that the feast of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe has deep rooting in the heart of the people of God, for two basic reasons: Firstly: the devotion to the "Guadalupana" sends us to the Word of God, that instructs our faith; secondly: such devotion is founded on an authentic prophetic Epiphany. The theological reflection is supported in some central ideas: Guadalupe allows the reorganization of the aboriginal conscience. Analogicalally, Guadalupe allows us to nominate God in three ways: christological, trinitarian and anthropological. Guadalupe, recorded in Juan Diego's Tilma (mantle), reveals a world as a world of Mary which is not possible to inhabit. In the narrative of Nican Mopohua we discern a Symbolic approach of the originary Goodness, that manifests the merciful love of the Father in the Son, with the figure of the Sufferer Servant as background.. Finally, Guadalupe sends us to the Biblical text, for being an interpretation of such text and a sign of its reception. The Virgin of Guadalupe finally assumes the characteristics of an authentic prophet. Keywords: feast; sacred; society; religion. (shrink)

Mi objetivo es discutir las principales dificultades que Frank P. Ramsey encontró en Principia Mathematica y la solución que, vía el Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, propuso al respecto. Sostengo que las principales dificultades que Ramsey encontró en Principia Mathematica están, todas, relacionadas con que Russell y Whitehead desatendieron la forma lógica de las proposiciones matemáticas, las cuales, según Ramsey, deben ser tautológicas.

A system S has the “converse Ackermann property” if -> C is unprovable in S whenever C is a propositional variable. In this paper we define the fragments with the C.A.P. of some well-know propositional systems in the spectrum between the minimal and classical logic. In the first part we succesively study the implicative and positive fragments and the full calculi. In the second, we prove by a matrix method that each one of the systems has the C.A.P. Thus, we (...) think the problem proposed in Anderson & Belnap § 8.12 has been solved. (shrink)

"Epistola a Memeceo, Maximas capitales, Sentencias vaticanas, fragmentos y testimonios; texto griego y traduccion": p. [87]-161.

El Padre en el Antiguo TestamentoVivir la experiencia de ser Padre en la historia de la humanidad ha sido siempre un gran desafió. A través de los testimonios de diversas culturas es posible rescatar los significados y características del ser padre, desde ser administrador de los conocimientos ancestrales y la comunicación con la divinidad, los ciclos de la tierra, los tiempos de siembra y cosecha, los tiempos de las artes y los tiempos de la guerra. Así reconocemos las aracterísticas del (...) .. (shrink)

Despite the wealth of research showing that psychological contract breach (PCB) has negative outcomes for individuals, knowledge about the influence of the social context in which breaches are experienced is still scarce. This is surprising, as scholars have argued that work climates, such as when unit members are generally highly committed, could buffer an individual’s negative experiences at work. Yet, to date, the unit climate and PCB literatures have largely remained separated and our main goal is to integrate these fields. (...) This is especially timely and relevant, because recent work in the unit climate literature indicates that merely looking at the average climate level might not be enough, because the climate’s strength (i.e., the agreement or homogeneity within the unit) could also provide important social cues. Building on these recent advances, we develop and test a theoretical framework which links both climate concepts to PCB. More specifically, we hypothesized that especially when all unit members are highly and homogeneously committed, an employee would reframe their PCB in such a way that it would less adversely affect work engagement and turnover intentions. Using data from 1,272 employees across 36 healthcare units, multilevel structural path analyses supported this three-way interaction. By answering recent calls for more ‘social PCB research’ and integrating the unit climate and PCB literatures, we aim to provide guidance to scholars and practitioners who want to understand in more depth the social context’s influence on PCB. (shrink)

This article reviews the Dutch societal debate on euthanasia/assisted suicide in dementia cases, specifically Alzheimer's disease. It discusses the ethical and practical dilemmas created by euthanasia requests in advance directives and the related inconsistencies in the Dutch legal regulations regarding euthanasia/assisted suicide. After an initial focus on euthanasia in advanced dementia, the actual debate concentrates on making euthanasia/assisted suicide possible in the very early stages of dementia. A review of the few known cases of assisted suicide of people with so-called (...) early dementia raises the question why requests for euthanasia/assisted suicide from patients in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease are virtually non-existent. In response to this question two explanations are offered. It is concluded that, in addition to a moral discussion on the limits of anticipatory choices, there is an urgent need to develop research into the patient's perspective with regard to medical treatment and care-giving in dementia, including end-of-life care. (shrink)

Este artigo baseia-se na ideia de que em qualquer tipo de diálogo os interlocutores estão marcados pela sua própria cultura/identidade. E também assim é no caso do diálogo inter-religioso. A cultura/identidade é o contexto existencial básico a partir do qual as pessoas entendem, questionam e interpretam as suas vidas, pelo que não pode ser ignorado. A necessidade de trabalhar no desenvolvimento das competências interculturais e na sensibilidade cultural surge como um ponto de partida fundamental para avançar neste tipo de diálogo. (...) This article is based on the idea that in any kind of dialogue the partners are marked by their own culture/identity. This is also the case of inter-religious dialogue. Culture/identity is the basic existential context from which people understand, raise questions and interpret their lives, can't be ignored. There is a need to work on developing cultural sensitivity and intercultural competencies as a fundamental starting point to advance in this type of dialogue. (shrink)

In various letters written to Mersenne in 1640 and 1641, Descartes mentions the Summa philosophiae quadrapartita of Eustachius a Sancto Paulo. But nothing that he says would lead us to believe the work an important influence on his thought. Nonetheless, when we turn to the Summa we are immediately struck by what seem to be “Cartesian” elements in its presentation. For example, a distinction is drawn between formal logic and “natural” logic. Formal logic is seen as a convenience in learning (...) the sciences, but natural logic alone is found to be the absolutely essential requirement. And this natural logic is basically a product of the natural light. It is not difficult to see in these passages a foreshadowing of Descartes’ new conception of method. Like Eustachius, he too maintains that the natural functions of the mind are all that we require in the pursuit of truth. But we shall find even more interesting similarities between the two men. (shrink)

Cardiology is characterized by its state-of-the-art biomedical technology and the predominance of Evidence-Based Medicine. This predominance makes it difficult for healthcare professionals to deal with the ethical dilemmas that emerge in this subspecialty. This paper is a first endeavor to empirically investigate the axiological foundations of the healthcare professionals in a cardiology hospital. Our pilot study selected, as the target population, cardiology personnel not only because of their difficult ethical deliberations but also because of the stringent conditions in which they (...) have to make them. Therefore, there is an urgent need to reconsider clinical ethics and Value-Based Medicine. This study proposes a qualitative analysis of the values and the virtues of healthcare professionals in a cardiology hospital in order to establish how the former impact upon the medical and ethical decisions made by the latter. (shrink)

Uno de los movimientos literarios de la posguerra guatemalteca fue la llamada Generación X, que se posicionó críticamente como una alternativa a la cultura oficial. Estos jóvenes artistas y escritores, en constante movimiento, rechazaban provocativamente las estructuras que los marginaban. Posicionados en una posmodernidad periférica, su referente era la globalización, como cambio radical de cultura. Ellos hicieron caso omiso de la memoria histórica, el canon sancionado, los códigos morales convencionales, las grandes narrativas y se sumergían honda -y a veces arriesgadamente- (...) en su esfera privada, sin horizontes utópicos. Como reacción a las grandes o pequeñas editoriales que los desconocían, generaron sus propios medios de producción y divulgación para su producción literaria. (shrink)

En el marco del Paradigma Emergente de la Complejidad, la educación cobra un nuevo significado. Emerge la necesidad de postular nuevas visiones acerca del fenómeno educativo que trasciendan la concepción disciplinar. Ir a la búsqueda de una práctica educativa más sensible, exhaustiva, cuyo eje sea enseñar a investigar, integradora de las ciencias sociales con las humanísticas, fomentadora de un conocimiento autónomo, formadora de ciudadanos provistos de los instrumentos que les permitan interaccionar con el entorno de una manera creativa como constructores (...) de saberes. Reflexionar sobre la educación como camino y como arte, repensar la educación desde y para la Complejidad, se transforman en tareas urgentes para los educadores del Siglo XXI. (shrink)

Open science (OS) is considered the new paradigm for science and knowledge dissemination. OS fosters cooperative work and new ways of distributing knowledge by promoting effective data sharing (as early and broadly as possible) and a dynamic exchange of research outcomes, not only publications. On the other hand, intellectual property (IP) legislation seeks to balance the moral and economic rights of creators and inventors with the wider interests and needs of society. Managing knowledge outcomes in a new open research and (...) innovation ecosystem is challenging and should become part of the EU’s IP strategy, underpinning EU policies with the new open science–open innovation paradigm. (shrink)

In cortical neurones, analogue dendritic potentials are thought to be encoded into patterns of digital spikes. According to this view, neuronal codes and computations are based on the temporal patterns of spikes: spike times, bursts or spike rates. Recently, we proposed an ‘action potential waveform code’ for cortical pyramidal neurones in which the spike shape carries information. Broader somatic action potentials are reliably produced in response to higher conductance input, allowing for four times more information transfer than spike times alone. (...) This information is preserved during synaptic integration in a single neurone, as back‐propagating action potentials of diverse shapes differentially shunt incoming postsynaptic potentials and so participate in the next round of spike generation. An open question has been whether the information in action potential waveforms can also survive axonal conduction and directly influence synaptic transmission to neighbouring neurones. Several new findings have now brought new light to this subject, showing cortical information processing that transcends the classical models. BioEssays 29: 178–187, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The expansion of livestock production throughout the world has led to increased demand for high protein animal feed. This expansion has created economic benefits for livestock farmers and other actors in the chain, but also resulted in environmental and social side effects. This study aims to identify a set of sustainability issues that cover the environmental, economic and social dimensions of soymeal and beef production chains. The method applied combines the results of multiple studies, including a literature review and stakeholder (...) surveys. Stakeholder surveys were conducted for three different interest groups and two geographical regions . Our results reveal that the selection of issues in most sustainability assessment studies is a relatively arbitrary decision, while the literature also states that identifying issues is an important step in a sustainability assessment. Defining sustainability issues from a whole chain perspective is important, as issues of sustainability emerge at various stages along the production chain, and are found to vary across stakeholders’ interests. Business stakeholders, for example, perceived economic issues to be more important, whereas the majority of consumer stakeholders and other stakeholders perceived social and environmental issues, respectively, to be more important. Different education levels, knowledge, and living patterns in various geographical regions can affect the stakeholders’ perceptions. The combination of a heterogeneous group of stakeholders and the consideration of multiple chain stages constitutes a useful approach to identify sustainability issues along food chains. (shrink)

Coaching is a systematic and goal-oriented one-on-one intervention by a coach aimed to guide clients in their professional and personal development. Previous research on coaching has demonstrated effects on a number of positive outcomes, including well-being and performance, yet little is known about the processes that underlie these outcomes, such as the type of questions coaches use. Here, we focus on three different types of coaching questions, and aim to uncover their immediate and sustained effects for affect, self-efficacy, and goal-directed (...) outcomes, using a between-subjects experiment. One hundred and eighty-three medical residents and PhD students from various medical centers and healthcare organizations in the Netherlands were recruited to participate in a self-coaching writing exercise, where they followed written instructions rather than interacting with a real coach. All participants were randomly allocated to one of three conditions: either one of two solution-focused coaching conditions or a problem-focused coaching condition. Self-report questionnaires were used to measure key outcomes of coaching, that is positive and negative affect, self-efficacy, goal orientation, action planning and goal attainment. Two follow-up measurements assessed if the effects of the self-coaching exercise led to problem-solving actions within an initial follow-up period of 14 days and a subsequent follow-up period of 10 days. Findings showed that participants experienced more positive affect, less negative affect, and higher approach goal orientation after the solution-focused coaching exercise compared to the problem-focused coaching exercise. In all conditions, goal attainment increased as a consequence of the self-coaching intervention. We discuss the implications of our findings for the science and practice of contemporary coaching. (shrink)

Mr. F. is a fifty‐year‐old father of two school‐aged daughters. Six years ago, he received a double lung transplant because he was suffering from interstitial lung disease, a fatal illness that causes suffocation by progressive scarring of the lungs. He is now experiencing chronic rejection of the transplant and is being considered to receive another. Without it, he is expected to survive only a year and a half. With it, his prognosis will improve, but the numbers are still not good. (...) Three years after his lung transplant, Mr. F. stopped attending his office visits. For a period of sixteen months he went without the studies and attention essential to posttransplant care. He stopped performing the required daily self‐monitoring of his lung function about eight months after his transplant, but he has maintained a regular exercise regimen. While lost to follow‐up, he continued to take his immunosuppressant medications, but he stopped taking medicine to control his high blood pressure because of its expense. (shrink)

Introduction Families of patients with dementia may need support in difficult end-of-life decision making. Such guidance may be culturally sensitive. Methods To support families in Canada, a booklet was developed to aid decision making on palliative care issues. For reasons of cost effectiveness and promising effects, we prepared for its implementation in Italy, the Netherlands and Japan. Local teams translated and adapted the booklet to local ethical, legal and medical standards where needed, retaining guidance on palliative care. Using qualitative content (...) analyses, we grouped and compared adaptations to understand culturally sensitive aspects. Results Three themes emerged: (1) relationships among patient, physician and other professionals—the authority of the physician was more explicit in adapted versions; (2) patient rights and family position—adding detail about local regulations; and (3) typology of treatments and decisions. Considerations underlying palliative care decisions were detailed (Dutch and Italian versions), and the Japanese version frequently referred to professional and legal standards, and life-prolongation was a competing goal. Text on artificial feeding or fluids and euthanasia was revised extensively. Conclusions Providing artificial feeding and fluids and discussing euthanasia may be particularly sensitive topics, and guidance on these subjects needs careful consideration of ethical aspects and possible adaptations to local standards and practice. The findings may promote cross-national debate on sensitive, core issues regarding end-of-life care in dementia. (shrink)