The concept of biological information, and information in general, usually presupposes a purely quantitative view of reality. Even though actualist quantification has an important place in the description of the world, a nominalistic stance that tries to simplify reality in purely actualist terms inevitably runs into inconsistencies; these inconsistencies have been pointed out by the critical assessments of the notion of biological information. Rather than calling for an abandonment of the informational terminology, we try to rethink information as a part (...) of an event, the description of which cannot be exhausted by a physicalist, mechanistic, temporally static view of reality. Reconceptualizing the notion of biological information in terms of a process of interpretation rather than as an informational object allows us to transcend the limitations imposed by an analysis of reality that depends on a fixed, finite structure of outcome. Thus, we argue that measuring biological information is intrinsically problematic. (shrink)

In spite of being ubiquitous in life sciences, the concept of information is harshly criticized. Uses of the concept other than those derived from Shannon's theory are denounced as pernicious metaphors. We perform a computational experiment to explore whether Shannon's information is adequate to describe the uses of said concept in commonplace scientific practice. Our results show that semantic sequences do not have unique complexity values different from the value of meaningless sequences. This result suggests that quantitative theoretical frameworks do (...) not account fully for the complex phenomenon that the term “information” refers to. We propose a restructuring of the concept into two related, but independent notions, and conclude that a complete theory of biological information must account completely not only for both notions, but also for the relationship between them. (shrink)

Why do humpback whales sing? This paper considers the hypothesis that humpback whales may use song for long range sonar. Given the vocal and social behavior of humpback whales, in several cases it is not apparent how they monitor the movements of distant whales or prey concentrations. Unless distant animals produce sounds, humpback whales are unlikely to be aware of their presence or actions. Some field observations are strongly suggestive of the use of song as sonar. Humpback whales sometimes stop (...) singing and then rapidly approach distant whales in cases where sound production by those whales is not apparent, and singers sometimes alternately sing and swim while attempting to intercept another whale that is swimming evasively. In the evolutionary development of modern cetaceans, perceptual mechanisms have shifted from reliance on visual scanning to the active generation and monitoring of echoes. It is hypothesized that as the size and distance of relevant events increased, humpback whales developed adaptive specializations for long-distance echolocation. Differences between use of songs by humpback whales and use of sonar by other echolocating species are discussed, as are similarities between bat echolocation and singing by humpback whales. Singing humpback whales are known to emit sounds intense enough to generate echoes at long ranges, and to flexibly control the timing and qualities of produced sounds. The major problem for the hypothesis is the lack of recordings of echoes from other whales arriving at singers immediately before they initiate actions related to those whales. An earlier model of echoic processing by singing humpback whales is here revised to incorporate recent discoveries. According to the revised model, both direct echoes from targets and modulations in song-generated reverberation can provide singers with information that can help them make decisions about future actions related to mating, traveling, and foraging. The model identifies acoustic and structural features produced by singing humpback whales that may facilitate a singer’s ability to interpret changes in echoic scenes and suggests that interactive signal coordination by singing whales may help them to avoid mutual interference. Specific, testable predictions of the model are presented. (shrink)

This study is grounded in the debate surrounding the perceived value of environmental social responsibility (ESR). Applying the Managerial Theory of the Firm, in-depth interviews were conducted to identify managerial motives, perceptions, and perceived value of ESR. Using sport and public assembly facilities as the research context, environmentally responsible information was obtained from facility managers who were members of the International Association of Venue Managers. In total, 15 one-hour, interviews with key facility personnel demonstrate that (1) internal stakeholder pressure, (2) (...) organizational culture, (3) financial cost-benefit, (4) competitiveness, and (5) ethical motives were the drivers for ESR engagement. Taken together, the findings suggest that establishing a culture of ESR, the "business case" for environmental responsibility, and ethical concerns offered the most value for the sport and public assembly facility managers. (shrink)

IntroductionRheumatologists are the primary healthcare professionals responsible for patients with rheumatic diseases and should acquire medical ethical competencies, such as the informed consent process. The objective clinical structured examination is a valuable tool for assessing clinical competencies. We report the performance of 90 rheumatologist trainees participating in a station designed to evaluate the ICP during the 2018 and 2019 national accreditations.MethodsThe station was validated and represented a medical encounter in which the rheumatologist informed a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus with (...) clinically active nephritis about renal biopsy. A trained patient–actor and an evaluator were instructed to assess ICP skills in obtaining formal informed consent, delivering bad news and overall communication with patients. The evaluator used a tailored checklist and form.ResultsCandidate performance varied with ICP content and was superior for potential benefit information but significantly reduced for potential complications and biopsy description. Only 17.8% of the candidates mentioned the legal perspective of ICP. Death was omitted by the majority of the candidates ; after the patient–actor challenged candidates, only 57.1% of them gave a clear and positive answer. Evaluators frequently rated candidate communications skills as superior, but ≥1 negative aspect was identified in 69% of the candidates.ConclusionsEthical competencies are mandatory for professional rheumatologists. It seems necessary to include an ethics competency framework in the curriculum throughout the rheumatology residency. (shrink)

This paper seeks to highlight the French philosopher Michel Foucault's contributions regarding his analysis of power. In this sense, the text proposes a conceptual transition around the ideas that could have interested the author within a digital context, integrating some notes and examples from the 2019 Chilean mobilizations.The article has an initial section that exposes genealogy as a way of approaching social reality. Then, it shows the social behaviors anticipation possibilities and their relationship with the information available on the web. (...) Later, it renders an account of the algorithmic governmentality notion as a key to reading it in both normative structure and a political possibility to final state reflections. (shrink)

Más de la mitad de la fuerza laboral mexicana se encuentra en la informalidad. Sin embargo, existe un elevado número de transiciones del empleo informal al empleo formal en el corto plazo, lo que se ha interpretado como evidencia de que la informalidad es una decisión óptima para incrementar el bienestar. El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las condiciones de ingreso y estabilidad laboral de los empleados que se insertan a la formalidad, después de iniciar su trayectoria laboral (...) en la informalidad. Se utiliza el Módulo de Trayectorias Laborales (MOTRAL) 2015, encuesta con representatividad nacional de las zonas urbanas mexicanas. Para ello se comparan las condiciones de ingreso y la estabilidad laboral en 2010 entre los trabajadores formales utilizando dos grupos: quienes tuvieron su primer empleo en la informalidad y quienes tuvieron su primer empleo en la formalidad. Se construyen matrices de transición entre el primer empleo, el empleo en 2010, y en 2015 para corroborar la alta movilidad encontrada por la literatura previa; posteriormente se analizan con modelos multivariados las condiciones de ingreso y la estabilidad laboral. Los resultados indican que una proporción significativa de quienes se iniciaron en la informalidad acceden posteriormente a empleos formales. Sin embargo, se encuentra que el acceso al empleo formal desde la informalidad ocurre en condiciones de desventajas en ingresos y contratación de largo plazo, sin que las desventajas desaparezcan posteriormente, por lo que el inicio de la vida laboral en la informalidad está asociado a desventajas permanentes en el mercado de trabajo. (shrink)

El trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar la incompatibilidad teórica existente entre el concepto (y/o los principios) del desarrollo sostenible y la producción de biocombustibles fundamentada en el modelo del agronegocio o agribusiness. Así en el primer ítem describimos los principales alertas emitidos a través de los Informes del IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, o Panel Inter gubernamental sobre los Cambios Climáticos) destacando: a) la influencia y el papel de las actividades humanas en el proceso del calentamiento global y la (...) contaminación ambiental, y b) el costo de oportunidad de reducir las emisiones de CO2. En el segundo destacamos los principales inversionistas extranjeros interesados en la producción de los biocombustibles, colocando algunas reflexiones en relación a este negocio “lucrativamente sostenible”, y por último -a modo de consideración- enfatizamos la imposibilidad en relación a la creencia absoluta en el libre mercado como la mejor fuente de innovación y aprendizaje para desarrollar alternativas energéticas viables y sostenibles ambientalmente. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyse the enslavement of Moriscos from the Alpujarras during the initial months of the war of Grenade. This research is based on unknown historical records of the Archivo General de Simancas, which include a rich information about this issue. Other local and notarial sources treasured in several andalussian archives are also used in order to study the kingdom of Granada as a slave market during 1569-1571. These historical sources let to study the exports of Morisco slaves (...) to the main cities of the Guadalquivir valley during these years. (shrink)

Although inclusion in formal value chains extends the prospect of improving the livelihoods of rural small-scale producers, such a step is often contingent on compliance with internationally-promoted food safety standards. Limited research has addressed the challenges this represents for small rural producers who, grounded in culturally-embedded food safety conceptions, face difficulties in complying. We address this gap here through a multiple case study involving four public school feeding programs that source meals from local rural providers in the Bolivian Altiplan. Institutional (...) logics theory is used to describe public food safety regulations and to compare them to food safety conceptions in the local indigenous Aymara rural setting. We identify a value-based conflict that leads to non-compliance of formal food safety rules that jeopardizes the participation of small farmers in the market. These include: partial adoption of formal rules; selective adoption of convenient rules; and ceremonial adoption to avoid compliance. Decoupling strategies allow local actors to largely disregard the formal food safety regulations while accommodating traditional cultural practices and continuing to access the market. However, these practices put the long-term sustainability of the farmers’ participation in potentially favorable opportunities at risk. (shrink)

In this passage, Zavaleta describes the connections between the moment of real subsumption, social totalisation, the production of social-scientific knowledge that takes the resultant totality as its object, including Marxist theory, and finally, the emergence of a broad intersubjectivity with the capacity to become a revolutionary historical actor.

Selective mutism is an anxiety disorder in which an individual is unable to speak in certain social situations though may speak normally in other settings (Hua & Major, 2016 ). Selective mutism in adults is rare, though people with this condition might have other methods of communicating their needs outside of verbal communication. Healthcare professionals rely on a patient’s ability to communicate to establish if they have decision-making capacity. This commentary responds to a case of a young adult patient with (...) selective mutism and social anxieties that significantly limited his ability to communicate with anyone in the healthcare team. This required a creative, patient-centered approach to engage in meaningful communication. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyze two argumentation methods that can be used when engaged in arguments with people whose opinions are radically opposed and which tend to take place amidst heightened emotions, or in which one of the interlocutors is very likely to, as in the case of an argument with a religious or political fanatic, resort to verbal or physical violence. The first method, proposed by Philippe Breton, is based on a protocol that includes three actions: distancing, active listening (...) and reasoning. The second method, proposed by Hubert Schleichert, entails what he calls “subversive reasoning”. (shrink)

The relationship between phenomenology and the sciences is of complex nature. In particular, the transcendental phenomenological position seems to promote skeptical reservations about the scientific attitude. Phenomenological anthropology and psychology, however, are an exception. The work of the Spanish philosopher Javier San Martin addresses the relationship of Husserlian phenomenology to these two particular sciences. In this paper, the work of Navarrese will be revisited as an occasion to reflect on the relationship between phenomenology and the sciences. In the first part, (...) San Martin’s philosophical approach is presented and put in relation to its counterpart, namely ratiovitalism, which has dominated phenomenological research in the Spanish-speaking world throughout the last decades. The second part is devoted to the question of whether phenomenological transcendentalism is compatible with anthropological research. It also describes San Martin’s contribution to cultural philosophy. The relationship between phenomenology and psychology is discussed in the third part. San Martin develops a critical account of empiricist psychology which he confronts with his proposal for a ’posttranscendental’ psychology that is based on the critique of psychologism and representationalism. The last section compares San Martin’s idea of anthropological and psychological science with other forms of scientific theory which contribute to phenomenological methodology in empirical research. (shrink)

El periodo de duelo tras la pérdida de un ser querido presenta experiencias y actitudes inusuales que juegan un papel importante en la vida cognitiva de las personas dolientes; por ejemplo, la sensación momentánea de que la persona difunta se encuentra presente, así como creencias de carácter religioso o espiritual. Frecuentemente esto involucra el mantenimiento activo de un vínculo con la persona difunta a través de diversas prácticas en la vida cotidiana. Tanto los estados mentales relacionados con el duelo como (...) las prácticas correspondientes al mantenimiento de vínculos tienen un valor epistémico, en la medida en que proveen un aporte a la funcionalidad del agente en su búsqueda por adquirir conocimiento, comprensión y otros bienes epistémicos. Esto tiene consecuencias éticas y sociales, ya que estos bienes epistémicos pueden ser destruidos o afectados por las intervenciones en el duelo, tanto clínicas como no-clínicas. A pesar de ello, esta dimensión no ha sido suficientemente reconocida por la literatura filosófica. Este trabajo busca motivar el interés por estudiar epistemológicamente el duelo de dos maneras. En primer lugar, ofreciendo una caracterización de los estados mentales asociados con el duelo en términos de estados subdoxásticos (como aliefs). Posteriormente, se muestra el papel que juegan dichos estados mentales en el espacio de affordances estructuradas en un nicho afectivo que permite el desempeño exitoso de la persona doliente en tanto agente epistémico. Con ello se busca proveer un marco de análisis que se pueda desarrollar y extender en futuros trabajos para estudiar los aspectos epistemológicos del duelo. (shrink)

Taylor's political proposal is based on a particular way of explaining human action. The modern ideal of authenticity is used to underline the role of responsibility in personal agency. Aristotelian prudence or phronesis is considered one of the best interpretations of practical reason for completing the ideal of authenticity because it includes the distinction among goods and their influence in everyone's life. The contemporary notion of horizon is an aid for understanding the role of cultural frames and dialogical exchange in (...) the construction of personal identity. (shrink)

We agree with Rendell and Whitehead that cetaceans acquire knowledge from caretakers and peers, and that a clear understanding of this process can provide insight into the evolution of mammalian cognition. The passive observational methods they advocate, however, are inadequate for determining what cetaceans know. Only by experimentally investigating the cognition of cetaceans can we hope to understand what they learn through social interactions.

The theoretical framework proposed by Dienes & Perner sets the wrong standards for knowledge to be considered explicit. Animals other than humans possess knowledge, too, some of which is probably explicit. We argue that a comparative approach to investigating knowledge is likely to be more fruitful than one based on linguistic constructs and unobservable phenomena.

Singing humpback whales (Megaptera noavaengliae) collectively and progressively change the sounds and patterns they produce within their songs throughout their lives. The dynamic modifications that humpback whales make to their songs are often cited as an impressive example of cultural transmission through vocal learning in a non-human. Some elements of song change challenge this interpretation, however, including: (1) singers often incrementally and progressively morph phrases within and across songs as time passes, with trajectories of change being comparable across multiple time (...) scales; (2) acoustically isolated subpopulations singing similar songs morph the acoustic properties of songs in similar ways; and (3) complex sound patterns, including phrases, themes, and whole songs, recur across years and populations. These properties of song dynamics suggest that singing humpback whales may be modulating song features in response to local conditions and genetic predispositions rather than socially learning novel sound patterns by copying other singers. Experimental and observational tests of key predictions of these alternative hypotheses are critical to identifying how and why singing humpback whales constantly change their songs. (shrink)

The current crises put before us alternatives of action that require decision; for example, the decision of whether to deploy or investigate SRM geoengineering to counter global warming, which is here taken as the central example. Attending to the ontological richness of value in the elements of the world, of which scientific models and thought are a very particular and limited kind, can cast a different light into the decision process, which otherwise would almost unavoidably devolve into “infernal alternatives,” as (...) Isabelle Stengers calls them: impossible choices between two evils. (shrink)

Renal replacement therapy is the indicated treatment for individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to survive. However, not all sick people have access to the same treatment. This study compares renal care in two developing countries with different health systems. Specifically, it explores hemodialysis treatment from the perspective of low‐income individuals. A qualitative, comparative study was performed in Brazil and Mexico. Using purposive sampling, the research was based on open‐ended interviews with nineteen participants with kidney failure undergoing hemodialysis treatment in (...) public hospitals and ten relatives. According to our results, Brazilian participants perceived hemodialysis care as satisfactory because of health personnel courtesy as well as free access to dialysis treatment, prescription drugs, hospitalization and transportation. However, they reported deficiencies in the care they were receiving due to shortages of specialists, prescription drugs, laboratory tests and transportation. Mexican participants, in contrast, highlighted the catastrophic costs of medical care because they had no free access to renal therapy, nor adequate financial resources. Our findings suggest that low‐income Brazilian CKD sufferers experience renal care differently, as they are more satisfied and face less obstacles with hemodialysis compared with those of Mexico. More studies on the topic are needed. (shrink)

A review of Alejandro Llanos book, Sueño y vigilia de la razón, is attempted on this article. To this aim it presents five main ideas from which it is possible to go beyond modernity limits to reach a new realistic philosophical framework.

Epistemología y ecología -- Ecocrítica y ecología queer -- Tres tonos de azul -- Mal ecológico.

The present work proposes a critical exploration of the epistemological foundations of modern contractualism, showing how its exclusion criteria operate through language games and the configuration of constitutional order. This critical exercise may improve the understanding of the conditions of possibility for a new social pact sense, in a political context marked by the Chilean popular revolt of 2019. Two consequential effects from above: the resignification of constitutional contents and the beginning of a constituent process.

Leonardo Polo impartió numerosos cursos y seminarios a gente de empresa a lo largo de su carrera académica, ilustrando las manifestaciones prácticas de su propuesta antropológica. Entre las nociones fundamentales que desarrolla están la relación entre el modo humano de proyectarse en el futuro, la esperanza y la apertura de la persona. En diferentes ocasiones alude a sus ideas sobre la razón práctica, la invención de instrumentos y la innovación, siempre vinculadas a la noción de pensamiento sistémico. Polo entiende las (...) organizaciones como escenarios de crecimiento personal, con una concepción del liderazgo que evita las derivas narcisistas y conecta con las virtudes clásicas de la fortaleza y la templanza. Su concepción de la motivación está asociada a la verdad, la confianza y al mejoramiento continuo de la comunicación. (shrink)

People faced with the prospect of being in the spotlight often feel apprehensive, even when being in the spotlight garners positive attention from others. Performance anxiety has been studied most...