The possibility of obtaining stem cells from human embryos has given rise to an intensive legal and ethical debate. In this paper, attention is paid to the normative disparity and ambiguity in Europe. An argument for the need for a minimal legal harmonization is made; and a prudent and flexible way to reach this successfully is suggested. Establishing a common legal framework seems to be the only way to guarantee true competitiveness for the European scientific community.

The risks of uncontrolled dissemination of GMOs has made it clear that biosafety is a very relevant matter that goes beyond the State boundaries. This approach has had its corresponding reflection at the policy level, which reveals that the public powers and the legislators have been sensitive to this existing preoccupation in ever-growing sectors of society. From the European regulations, one can deduce a set of principles, which must guide the decisions of the public powers in matters related to biosafety: (...) precaution, authorisation and inspection, “step by step”, “case by case”, traceability and transparency, among other. (shrink)

Biolaw is an autonomous interdisciplinary legal discipline, with great theoretical and practical relevance because of its possible social effects. This contribution deal with the most relevant different approaches to bioethical problems according to the main juridical systems, as they are civil law and common law. A main topic is also the relation between Biolaw, Bioethics and Biopolitics.

The new generation of psychopharmacological products have proved their efficacy. Some neuro-degenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, could be treated by means of the gene therapy. Although the aetiology of such diseases is still not completely known, it has been proven that the patients lack some substances that could be produced by means of the transfer of in vivo or ex vivo genes that codify them in the proper places of the brain. Furthermore, it is announced that the (...) implantation in laboratory grown stem cells of diverse origins is very hopeful. Cerebral (micro)electronic implants could be effective to fight some motor diseases as well as sensory functions. All of these kinds of new treatments need to be tested through clinical research. Most national legislation includes provisions on the clinical trials of drugs and a series of guarantees, procedures and conditions which are designed to ensure protection for individuals used in experiments and to assure that the trial is indeed of scientific relevance. However, few lay down similar regulations or provide for specific controls for the research of other treatments. Finally, enhancement of psychic capacities pose new problems for society as well as do the need for new legal decisions. (shrink)

The possibility of obtaining stem cells from human embryos has given rise to an intensive legal and ethical debate. In this paper, attention is paid to the normative disparity and ambiguity in Europe. An argument for the need for a minimal legal harmonization is made; and a prudent and flexible way to reach this successfully is suggested. Establishing a common legal framework seems to be the only way to guarantee true competitiveness for the European scientific community.

A Bioética, que podemos qualificar, sem a menor dúvida, como uma ciência jovem - embora cheia de vigor, dinamismo e em plena expansão - se ocupa, desde as multifacetadas óticas das grandes perguntas que se formula a cada dia, o homem moderno, em torno da vida. Neste livro, os autores tratam de alguns aspectos conceituais que, às vezes, são obliterados no discurso bioético. Por exemplo, quais as relações que se interpõem entre Bioética e Direito, começando por delimitar cada uma destas (...) disciplinas. (shrink)

Fornece um panorama sobre os avanços biotecnológicos, dando ênfase aos aspectos jurídicos e éticos do impacto destes na área genética sobre o homem e o meio ambiente.

La obra incluye legislación de quince países, así como diversos documentos de la ONU, la UNESCO, el Consejo de Europa, la Unión Europea, Comités Nacionales de Ética, dictámenes y resoluciones de Instituciones Internacionales, jurisprudencia española y una selección bibliográfica con unas 1.300 referencias, clasificada por materias. Algunas leyes nacionales y los documentos del Consejo de Europa se publican traducidos al español y en su idioma original, cuando éste se ha considerado fácilmente asequible, con el fin de facilitar el acceso a (...) la fuente directa. (shrink)

This paper reports on the meeting of the Sounding Board of the EU Reprogenetics Project that was held in Budapest, Hungary, 6–9 November 2005. The Reprogenetics Project runs from 2004 until 2007 and has a brief to study the ethical aspects of human reproductive cloning and germline gene therapy. Discussions during The Budapest Meeting are reported in depth in this paper as well as the initiatives to involve the participating groups and others in ongoing collaborations with the goal of forming (...) an integrated network of European resources in the fields of ethics of science. (shrink)

This paper reports on the meeting of the Sounding Board of the EU Reprogenetics Project that was held in Budapest, Hungary, 6–9 November 2005. The Reprogenetics Project runs from 2004 until 2007 and has a brief to study the ethical aspects of human reproductive cloning and germline gene therapy. Discussions during The Budapest Meeting are reported in depth in this paper as well as the initiatives to involve the participating groups and others in ongoing collaborations with the goal of forming (...) an integrated network of European resources in the fields of ethics of science. (shrink)

This paper reports on the meeting of the Sounding Board of the EU Reprogenetics Project that was held in Budapest, Hungary, 6–9 November 2005. The Reprogenetics Project runs from 2004 until 2007 and has a brief to study the ethical aspects of human reproductive cloning and germline gene therapy. Discussions during The Budapest Meeting are reported in depth in this paper as well as the initiatives to involve the participating groups and others in ongoing collaborations with the goal of forming (...) an integrated network of European resources in the fields of ethics of science. (shrink)

A collection of essays on the human genome, European patent law, cloning, and genetic malpractice suits.

This book argues for a new reading of the political and ethical through the literatures of Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay from 1970-2000. Carlos Amador reads a series of examples from the last dictatorship and the current post-dictatorship period in the Southern Cone, including works by Augusto Roa Bastos, Roberto Bolaño, Ceferino Reato, Horacio Verbitsky, Nelly Richard, Diamela Eltit, and Willy Thayer, with the goal of uncovering the logic behind their conceptions of belonging and rejection. Focusing on theoretical concepts that (...) make possible the formation of any and all communities, this study works towards a vision of literature as essential to the structure of ethics. (shrink)

Multi-Task Learning tries to improve the learning process of different tasks by solving them simultaneously. A popular Multi-Task Learning formulation for SVM is to combine common and task-specific parts. Other approaches rely on using a Graph Laplacian regularizer. Here we propose a combination of these two approaches that can be applied to L1, L2 and LS-SVMs. We also propose an algorithm to iteratively learn the graph adjacency matrix used in the Laplacian regularization. We test our proposal with synthetic and real (...) problems, both in regression and classification settings. When the task structure is present, we show that our model is able to detect it, which leads to better results, and we also show it to be competitive even when this structure is not present. (shrink)

In the so-called knowledge society, communication plays a key role in organizations. In traditional societies, the exchange of personal communication was conducted _face to face_. The development of new technologies has expanded the possibilities of transmitting more information within organizations and faster. Technology has brought greater opportunities for collective communication, as well as greater information management. The impact of these factors has led to some very significant changes in the business world. In these processes of change, within organizations, the role (...) of communication is increasingly playing a critical role. This article defends the relevance of ethical communication in 21st Century leadership. It is argued that leaders will find in ethical communication the means of gaining credibility and the confidence of their most immediate collaborators, their teams, the organizations they lead and the society in which the company operates. Taking the fundamental structure between internal and external communication as a starting point, the article describes the necessary conditions for leadership to develop ethical communication. It establishes the general and common characteristics of people-centered ethical communication, both as individuals and teams. Furthermore, it identifies the conditions that must generate ethical external communication through which leaders can convey messages to their target audience. For this purpose, the article is structured into the following sections: 1. The importance of communication within organizations. 2. Two levels of communication. 3. What is required of a leader-communicator in order to communicate well? 4. The basic Q&A of communication. (shrink)

Understanding evolution beyond a gene-centered vision is a fertile ground for new questions and approaches. However, in this systemic perspective, we take issue with the necessity of the concept of information. Through the example of brain and language evolution, we propose the autonomous systems theory as a more biologically relevant framework for the evolutionary perspective offered by Jablonka & Lamb (J&L).

The manuscript tradition of Proba’s "Cento" was investigated by K. SCHENKL, whose edition (CSEL 1888) remains the basis of every further inquiry. He knew some 25 manuscripts, only eleven of which are reported in his apparatus. Going through catalogues I have discovered about 40 new manuscripts, most of which belong to the humanistic age. After listing all the manuscripts, I try to establish their relationships. Although I consider restricted evidence (I have collated systematically about 100 verses), some facts seem to (...) be plain. The humanistic tradition originates from three old manuscripts (Cantabrig. Sanctae Trinitatis O.7.7; Parisinus Lat. 13048; Vaticanus Pal. Lat. 1753), while another very important old manuscript (Parisinus Lat. 7701) has no progeny. I try to place all the manuscripts in a stemma. (shrink)

Since Seligman's 1971 statement that the vast majority of phobias are about objects essential to the survival of a species, a multitude of laboratory studies followed, supporting the finding that humans learn to fear and detect snakes (and other animals) faster than other stimuli. Most of these studies used schematic drawings, images, or pictures of snakes, and only a small amount of fieldwork in naturalistic environments was done. We address fear preparedness theories, and automatic fast detection data from mainstream laboratory (...) data and compares it with ethobehavioural information relative to snakes, predator-prey interaction, and snakes’ defensive kinematics strikes in order to analyse their potential matching. From this analysis four main findings arose, namely that: 1) Snakebites occur when people are very close to the snake and are unaware or unable to escape the bite; 2) Human visual detection and escape response is slow compared to the speed of snake strikes; 3) In natural environments, snake experts are often unable to see snakes existing nearby; 4) animate objects in general capture more attention over other stimuli and dangerous but recent objects in evolutionary terms are also able to be detected fast. The issues mentioned above pose several challenges to evolutionary psychology-based theories expecting to find special-purpose neural modules. The older selective habituation hypothesis (Schleidt, 1961), that prey animals start with a rather general predator image from which specific harmless cues are removed by habituation might deserve reconsideration. (shrink)

América Latina fue un campo de experimentación del neoliberalismo durante más de tres décadas, y parte de la agenda política promovida conjuntamente por el Banco Mundial, el Fondo Monetario Internacional y la Secretaría del Tesoro del gobierno de Estados Unidos, en lo que a partir de entonces recibi..

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the tragic poets of the fifth century BC used an engine called ekkyklema in order to reveal the scenes supposed to take place inside. I think I can indicate a passage, that clearly demonstrates the use of such an engine (Eur. Her. 1028 ff.), since the chorus’ words are otherwise unintellegibile. Comic poets used this engine only for paratragic purpose, because the distinction inside/outside was not relevant for comedy.

The aim of this paper is to cast new light on the textual constitution of some passages of Apuleius. For ca. 15 passages of Florida as well as for 5 passages of Apologia a new textual solution is proposed.

The aim of this paper is to cast new light on the textual constitution of some passages of Florus’ Epitoma, for which I propose a new textual solution.