The disease brought about by the SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 coronavirus has had an unprecedented global impact. Confinement to control the outbreak may have mental health consequences for the most vulnerable in the population, including adolescents. This study aims to describe and analyze the relationships between the stress variables, Emotional Intelligence and the intention to use cannabis in healthy adolescents, before and after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic containment stage. A comparative correlational study was carried out with validated self-completed questionnaires through (...) an online platform. The sample is made up of adolescents aged 13–17 from two different schools in Ponferrada. The analysis of correlation and differences between the groups indicate that confinement has had effects on the mental health of the adolescents, specifically on the emotional manifestations of stress. Furthermore, significant gender differences were found for stress values and Emotional Intelligence. However, no differences have been found for cannabis use intention. (shrink)

Agreement technologies refer to a novel paradigm for the construction of distributed intelligent systems, where autonomous software agents negotiate to reach agreements on behalf of their human users. Smart Cities are a key application domain for agreement technologies. While several proofs of concept and prototypes exist, such systems are still far from ready for being deployed in the real-world. In this paper we focus on a novel method for managing elements of smart road infrastructures of the future, namely the case (...) of auction-based road intersections. We show that, even though the key technological elements for such methods are already available, there are multiple non-technical issues that need to be tackled before they can be applied in practice. For this purpose, we analyse legal and ethical implications of auction-based road intersections in the context of international regulations and from the standpoint of the Spanish legislation. From this exercise, we extract a set of required modifications, of both technical and legal nature, which need to be addressed so as to pave the way for the potential real-world deployment of such systems in a future that may not be too far away. (shrink)

Self-control is deemed crucial for reasons-responsive agency and a key contributor to long-term wellbeing. But recent studies suggest that effortfully resisting one’s temptations does not contribute to long-term goal attainment, and can even be harmful. So how does self-control improve our lives? Finding an answer requires revising the role that overcoming temptation plays in self-control. This paper distinguishes two forms of self-control problems: temptation (the presence of a strong wayward motivation) and apathy (the lack of commitment-advancing motivation). This distinction makes (...) it possible to separate negative self-control (aimed at overcoming temptation) from positive self-control (aimed at overcoming lack of motivation). The paper argues that temptation should not play a central role in our conception of self-control, since overcoming temptation is neither necessary nor sufficient for successful self-control. (shrink)

The purpose of the paper is to cast doubt on the alleged intuitive or natural character of the skeptical argument about the external world. In §1, we examine a version of the skeptical argument based on the epistemic closure principle and the indifference principle. In §2, in order to deepen the view defended by Michael Williams, we offer a novel examination of the Cartesian skeptical argumentation to show that it is clear that the alleged naturalness claimed by the skeptic is (...) nowhere to be found in two arguments which can be found in such argumentative strategy; moreover, to reach her conclusion, the skeptic needs to commit to epistemological realism, namely, the claim that each of our beliefs belongs to an epistemological hierarchy based solely on its content. In §3, based on arguments inspired by Wittgenstein, contra epistemological realism, we show how each belief has a justificatory role based on its context. (shrink)

Adolescence is a stage characterized by many biological and psychosocial changes, all of which may result in a decrease in subjective well-being. It is therefore necessary to identify those factors that contribute to increased life satisfaction, in order to promote positive development among young people. The aim of this study is to examine the dynamics of a set of variables that contribute to life satisfaction. A total of 1,188 adolescents completed the Perceived Social Support from Family and Friends and Perception (...) of the School Environment Questionnaires, the Trait Meta Mood Scale, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10, and Satisfaction with Life Scale for social support, emotion regulation, resilience, and life satisfaction. By applying structural equation modeling, the results reveal a direct prediction of family support, emotion regulation, and resilience on life satisfaction. Support from friends and emotion regulation was also found to explain resilience, and support from family and teachers was found to predict emotion regulation. In conclusion, emotion regulation and social support were found to indirectly affect life satisfaction among adolescents through resilience. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. (shrink)

The ethics of deceased organ procurement (OP) is supposedly based on individual consent to donate, either explicit (opt-in) or presumed (opt-out). However, in many cases, individuals fail to express any preference regarding donation after death. When this happens, the decision to remove or not to remove their organs depends on the policy’s default option or on family preferences. Several studies show that in most countries the family plays a significant and often decisive role in the process of decision-making for OP. (...) Depending on the country, the family may be allowed to take different kinds of actions in different situations, and this may be granted either by law or by clinical practice only. This adds much complexity to the usual classification of consent policies in two categories: opt-in and opt-out. Here we propose a novel and comprehensive taxonomy of the models of consent for OP according to three variables: (1) the deceased’s wishes, if any, (2) family wishes, if any, and (3) default policies. By analysing these models of consent, we show that they rely on at least three different concepts of autonomy: individual autonomy, relational autonomy, and family autonomy. In light of this analysis, we discuss the ethical debates surrounding two policy approaches: presumed consent and family veto. (shrink)

ABSTRACT While the concept of “infinite distance” (ID) appears as such only in the work of Maurice Blanchot, in this paper we argue that it could be productively coined in Walter Benjamin’s as well. We argue that (1) the concept of ID is elaborated from a revision, a re-signification, and a radicalization of the modern concept of “aesthetic distance”, and that (2) this modification is fundamentally based on the interpretations that both, Benjamin and Blanchot, make first of early German Romanticism, (...) and second of the work of Franz Kafka. This modification, we contend, (3) contains a shift in the ground of the concept: the concept of ID has no longer as ground the realm of the subjective faculties (i.e., the ‘judgment of taste’), but the realm of art and language. Finally, we show (4) that the concept of ID presupposes the existence of a ‘fragmentary impulse’ within literary works that can be understood as a “limit-experience” for the subjectivity. (shrink)

El concepto de comunidad, acuñado en el siglo XIX por Ferdinand Tönnies, sigue constituyendo el sustrato del pensamiento de la vida cotidiana, pero también de formulaciones teóricas y políticas. En particular, está detrás de la idea de mediación comunitaria, con la que nos proponemos nuevas utopías de autogestión de los conflictos. Sin embargo, el marco social en el que se creó el concepto ha cambiado profundamente, sobre todo a partir de los últimos 40 años al calor de la llamada “globalización”. (...) El artículo explora estos cambios, y sugiere hacia donde pueden abrirse las nuevas interpretaciones, mostrando además cómo estos afectarían a la mediación comunitaria. (shrink)

El presente artículo es una reflexión profunda sobre los principales fundamentos del Derecho penal. En concreto, se ocupa de esclarecer los criterios de verdad sobre los que se apoyan las decisiones de los jueces. Ello supone cuestionar las bases filosóficas y científicas más rígidas del mundo jurídico, que postulan su carácter objetivo, y exponerlas a la crítica sociológica y política.The present article is a deep reflection on the principal foundations of the Criminal law. Specially, it is busy with clarifying the (...) criteria of truth on those who rest the decisions of the judges. It supposes questioning the most rigid philosophical and scientific bases of the juridical world, which postulate his objective character, and exposing them to the sociological and political critique. (shrink)

This essay is a reflection on the transformations in our way of life the city in the last century, some changes in the transition from an industrial society to a society telematics have altered our ways of living and working, and being. The urban spaces are being built at present following a different logic from that which prevailed in the past. This produces new ways to control and segregation, leads to difficulties in the composition of one's own identity and intolerance;, (...) on balance, requires us unprecedented flexibility in the history that goes difficult the development of community sense. (shrink)

To understand Lacan’s thinking process on vision, the entirety of his teaching must be taken into consideration. Until the 60s, the visual field is the imaginary, the constitutive principle of reality in its phenomenal giving to the experience of a subject. This register is the opposite of the field of the word with the L schema and, subsequently, as subordinated to the symbolic system according to the model of the optical schema of the inverted flower vase of Bouasse. It is (...) only with the 1964 seminar that Lacan makes a daring turnaround through which the visual becomes a sign of the emergence of a real that is irreducible to both reality and the mediation of the subject of knowledge. The split that separates reality and the real is reproduced in Lacan within the visual field, which is, on the one hand, the cardinal principle of the consistency of the experience of reality, and on the other, it is an element of irreducibility to reality. This produces a cascade of consequences: first of all, the modification of the presentation of the mirror stage. Unlike the voice, which through prosody, tone, and volume, finds some strips with which anchor itself imaginatively to reality, the gaze, invisible and elusive, escapes the imaginary grasp. Captured in myths, it reveals its power and ability to annihilate—as in the myth of Medusa’s gaze—or to make people fall in love but only with a narcissistic love that leads inexorably to death as in the myth of Narcissus. The gaze is elusive because the subject is dependent on it in the field of desire. Like the voice, it is about the desire on which the subject is supported; it is one of the objects on which the phantom depends. In our opinion, thanks to this characteristic, the gaze object can make remote psychoanalytic treatment possible through easily accessible videoconferencing tools and, at the same time, create new conditions within it that should be carefully evaluated to understand its implications in the session itself. (shrink)

Proponemos que ciertos “detalles” (la catálisis, según Barthes) revelan la presencia del poder disciplinario en la esfera del relato moderno. Iniciamos el análisis a partir de algunas unidades descriptivas del Purén Indómito, a las que consideramos antecedentes directos de esa revelación, y concluimos con la novela Martín Rivas y el cuento El matadero. El texto colonial da cuenta detallada de la vida cotidiana en el reino de Chile, cuenta que expresa las estrategias del poder de soberanía, mientras que en los (...) relatos modernos relevará la presencia del poder disciplinario. Así, la presencia de detalles dramáticos en el Purén obedece a lograr la intervención jurídica-moral del monarca en el reino. En cambio, a partir del realismo esos detalles muestran el actuar de los cuerpos a someter y disciplinar, tal y como ocurre en Martín Rivas y El matadero. La estrategia narrativa será entonces sacar a la luz los detalles de las costumbres retrógradas, bárbaras, sucias, de la sociedad latinoamericana para disciplinarlas, limpiarlas y conseguir, así, naciones modernas y productivas. Our proposition is that certain “details” (catalysis, according to Barthes) reveal the presence of disciplinary power in the sphere of modern fiction. Our analysis starts with some of the descriptive units of Purén Indómito, which we consider to be a direct precedent for this revelation, and we conclude with the novella, Martín Rivas, and the short story, El matadero. The text dating from the colonial period gives a detailed account of daily life in the kingdom of Chile, describing the strategies of the sovereign power, while the modern stories highlight the presence of disciplinary power. Thus, the purpose of the dramatic details recounted in Purén is to ensure the legal-moral intervention of the monarch in the kingdom. In realist works, on the other hand, these details show the actions of organisations to subject and discipline the people, just as it occurs in Martín Rivas and El matadero. In this case, the narrative strategy is to exhibit the details of the foul, barbarous, reactionary customs of Latin American societies in order to discipline and purify them, and thus transform them into modern, productive nations. (shrink)

Alireza Bagheri supports a policy on organ procurement where individuals could choose their own definition of death between two or more socially accepted alternatives. First, we claim that such a policy, without any criterion to distinguish accepted from acceptable definitions, easily leads to the slippery slope that Bagheri tries to avoid. Second, we suggest that a public discussion about the circumstances under which the dead donor rule could be violated is more productive of social trust than constantly moving the line (...) between life and death. (shrink)

La obtención de alimentos sanos y seguros requiere de técnicas de conservación inocuas para el consumidor y para el me­dio ambiente, entre las que se destaca la bioconservación. A su ca­tálogo de compuestos naturales o microorganismos, utilizados de forma habitual, la bioconservación ha incorporado recientemente los bacteriófagos y las proteínas fágicas con actividad lítica. La utilización de fagos y endolisinas en el biocontrol ofrece importantes ventajas frente a otros sistemas de conserva­ción tradicionales. Entre dichas ventajas destacan su inocuidad, especificidad y (...) versatilidad. Por otra parte, la acuciante necesidad de reducir el uso de antibióticos en la cadena alimentaria ha impul­sado la investigación basada en estos antimicrobianos con el fin de aplicarlos en producción primaria. Sin embargo, y a pesar de la gran eficacia ya demostrada en múltiples sectores, la falta de legislación de la Unión Europea sobre el uso de bacteriófa­gos junto con la necesidad de ser aceptados por los consumidores, son factores que están afectando negativamente a su implantación como bioconservantes. En este contexto, este artículo recoge los últimos resultados relacionados con este tipo de antimicrobianos en la industria agro-alimentaria, y resume los puntos clave para entender las posibilidades reales de su aplicación ante los nuevos requisitos asociados con una producción sostenible tanto desde una perspectiva económica como ambiental. (shrink)

En este artículo se estudia el papel jugado por diferentes órdenes religiosas con vistas a la instalación de alguna de sus comunidades en el antiguo cenobio agustino de Nuestra Señora de Regla sito en la localidad gaditana de Chipiona en el marco del proceso de restauración de las órdenes religiosas vivido en España tras la supresión de las mismas, sobre todo con la llegada al trono español del rey Alfonso XII en 1875, proceso que se vio complicado por la instalación (...) en nuestro país de las comunidades religiosas expulsadas de Francia a partir de 1880. Se analiza especialmente el papel desempeñado por los franciscanos misioneros españoles y los monjes benedictinos franceses de las abadías de Solesmes y Ligugé. (shrink)

En este artículo se analizan las transformaciones producidas en el patrimonio artístico de la iglesia parroquial de la Purísima Concepción de Gilena entre los años 1874 y 1928 según los datos contenidos en varios inventarios de dicha iglesia realizados en ese tiempo.

Ampliación de un estudio anterior en la que se dan a conocer nuevas aportaciones acerca del devenir histórico de la iglesia parroquial de Gilena desde sus orígenes, en el siglo XVI, hasta el siglo XIX.

Con el presente trabajo nos acercamos a la figura de don Pedro José Baena y Núñez, quien fuera vicario general de Estepa, esto es, titular de una prelacía menor que gobernaba eclesiásticamente una jurisdicción exenta o nullius dioecesis que comprendía el territorio de lo que fue el marquesado de Estepa; especialmente se analiza su comportamiento durante la ocupación francesa de este territorio entre los años 1810 y 1812, del cual hemos tenido conocimiento a través de un proceso judicial que se (...) le incoó, llamado de purificación, al poco tiempo de la marcha de los franceses y que se conserva en el archivo de la vicaría de Estepa, custodiado hoy en el del arzobispado hispalense. (shrink)

En este artículo se analiza un expediente conservado en el Archivo General del Arzobispado de Sevilla que trata acerca del intento de fundar una nueva congregación del Oratorio de San Felipe Neri en la ciudad de Écija el año 1749, fundación que finalmente no se llevó a cabo.

En este artículo nos centraremos en las reflexiones de G. W. Leibniz sobre el problema de la individuación en torno a 1686, principalmente a partir del análisis del Discours de Metaphysique1 y de los textos de la correspondencia que entabló con Arnauld2. Nuestros objetivos principales son, en primer lugar, poner de relieve los principales elementos teóricos que definen la posición leibniziana y, en segundo lugar, atender a la recepción de tales ideas por parte de la filosofía del lenguaje contemporánea, especialmente (...) en lo que respecta a la utilización del principio de individuación de Leibniz como base para una semántica modal. (shrink)

En este artículo, se aborda, desde una óptica Spinoziana, el problema de la libertad. Spinoza rechaza la libertad como el libre albedrío. Sin embargo, considera que podemos tener agencia (libertad) en tanto, guiados por el conocimiento de las causas de nuestros afectos, actuemos en favor de nuestro conatus. Esta investigación está dividida en tres capítulos: En el primero, se reconstruye, someramente, la posición de Spinoza sobre el libre albedrío; en el segundo, se desarrolla su propuesta de agencia; finalmente, en el (...) tercero, se busca reactualizar las consideraciones de Spinoza en torno a la discusión contemporánea sobre problema de la libertad. (shrink)

Although entrepreneurial intention has been widely studied using cognitive models, we still lack entrepreneurial vocation and, therefore, lack disruptive innovations. Entrepreneurship scholars have some understanding of the reasons underlying this weakness, although there is much room for improvement in our learning concerning how to promote entrepreneurship among university students, especially in the transformed context of digital technologies. This paper focuses on the early stages of start-up, and in particular seeks to evaluate what role social and psychological factors play in the (...) development of entrepreneurial intentions. Drawing on network theory, we consider the impact of social networks on entrepreneurial intention. Specifically, we analyze the influence of two types of social networks: face-to-face and online social networks, with the latter proving especially important in digital transformations. In addition, based on affective congruency theory, we relate affect with entrepreneurial intention. Particularly, we evaluate the influence of positive and negative dispositional affectivity on the formation of entrepreneurial intentions. Finally, since affect and emotions can also be related with social relationships, we analyze whether dispositional affectivities influence entrepreneurial intention through the mediation effect of social networks. Using structural equation modeling, we confirm the impact of both online and face-to-face social networks, as well as positive dispositional affectivity on entrepreneurial intention for 589 higher education students in Spain. However, negative dispositional affectivity is not seen to influence entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, both face-to-face and online social networks are influenced by positive dispositional affectivity. Moreover, these two types of networks can even partially mediate the relationship between positive dispositional affectivity and entrepreneurial intention. Positive dispositional affectivity can thus influence entrepreneurial intention in two different ways: directly and indirectly through both face-to-face and online social networks. This study provides further insights and adds to the literature on affect, social networks, and entrepreneurial intention. From a broader perspective, we also contribute to the literature on disruptive innovations by explaining how the development of entrepreneurial intentions would have positive consequences for university students vis-à-vis achieving these disruptive innovations. (shrink)

El artículo examina el conflicto formal que se produce en la descripción de Odradek al interior de “La preocupación del padre de familia” de Franz Kafka. En la voz de su narrador, Kafka se vale de un lenguaje de extraordinaria precisión para describir a su criatura (Odradek), produciendo una serie de paradojas. Prestamos atención seria a estas paradojas, mostrando las consecuencias que ellas plantean para los conceptos de “historia” en Kant y Benjamin, en sus respectivas relaciones con el concepto de (...) “naturaleza” en estos autores. (shrink)

b>—Several paradigms (e.g. change blindness, inattentional blindness, transsaccadic integra- tion) indicate that observers are often very poor at reporting changes to their visual environment. Such evidence has been used to suggest that the spatio-temporal coherence needed to represent change can only occur in the presence of focused attention. However, those studies almost always rely on explicit reports. It remains a possibility that the visual system can implicitly detect change, but that in the absence of focused attention, the change does not (...) reach awareness and consequently is not reported. To test this possibility, we used a simple change detection paradigm coupled with a speeded orien- tation discrimination task. Even when observers reported being unaware of a change in an item’s orientation, its nal orientation effectively biased their response in the orientation discrimination task. Both in aware and unaware trials, errors were most frequent when the changed item and the probe had incongruent orientations. These results demonstrate that the _nature _of the change can be represented in the absence of awareness. (shrink)

According to Pablo Oyarzun, Benjamin’s concept of history “is not about a war over the representation of history, but a war over history itself. Only in so far as this is its field, there can also be a struggle for its representation”. While Oyarzun’s observation refers to the first “thesis” of Benjamin’s «On the Concept of history», in this article I argue that it can be productively used to shed light onto a broader understanding of the Benjamin’s concept of history. (...) To that end, I elaborate on Oyarzun’s comment in order to analyze and to render explicit the relationship between 'Truth' and 'presentation' in Benjamin’s thought. In doing so, I highlight the relevance of this relationship for the concept of 'History' that Benjamin elaborated in the late ‘30s. (shrink)

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 El interrogante del que este artículo pretende dar cuenta es si el individualismo de John Locke responde a la radicalidad con la que la corriente de interpretación más difundida intenta caracterizarlo. La conclusión que se alcanza luego de una amplia presentación de pruebas textuales, es que la necesaria matización del individualismo se deriva de la insistencia del autor en justificar el origen divino de los derechos y deberes. De este modo, en la medida (...) en que se niegue que los hombres disponen de un derecho irrefrenable a seguir su deseo de autopreservación, es posible concluir que el Estado no existe para resguardar esos presuntos derechos individuales, sino para restaurar la ley de naturaleza que ya no sirve, como debería, para determinar los derechos y deberes de los hombres. (shrink)

Esta ponencia se propone demostrar que, para John Locke, el individuo posee derechos inalienables, pero que la misma naturaleza humana tiende a establecer ciertas relaciones de poder que lo esclavizan. La constatación teórica e histórica de este postulado lleva a Locke a sostener que la salida del hombre de esa situación de enfermedad debe liberarlo no de las relaciones de poder, que pueden ser legitimadas, sino de sus propias pasiones que lo llevan a juzgar con parcialidad sus derechos y a (...) intentar someter a otros a los designios de su amor propio. Para ello, el contrato social lockeano busca elaborar un equilibrio entre los derechos inalienables de los hombres y la construcción de un espacio comunitario que haga posible la justicia en las relaciones humanas y, por lo tanto, emancipe al hombre del estado de enfermedad en el que se encontraría si no existiese el poder político. La función del poder político surgido en el contrato social es, pues, la de respetar-reestablecer el equilibrio entre libertad e igualdad que debe primar entre los hombres. (shrink)

This article analyzes the relation the author establishes between freedom and fear, in order to confront it to resistance. First, it studies the definition of liberty held during the debates of XVII century Aristotelianism. Second, it establishes connections between the notion of freedom as a mere act and political resistance. The conclusion reached is that although fear does not constrain freedom nor precludes obligation, this does not imply any limitation to future political resistance.

En la segunda mitad del siglo XIX la filosofía positiva se consolidó como la corriente de pensamiento dominante en México, muchos pensadores la utilizaron como marco teórico para interpretar los acontecimientos pasados y proyectar el futuro de la nación. Por su análisis, explicación e interpretación de la historia nacional México: su evolución social es la obra culminante del positivismo mexicano, pero para sorpresa nuestra ha sido poco estudiada por los especialistas, de ahí que sea necesario recuperarla. En este artículo nos (...) damos a esa tarea y para ello nos enfocaremos en analizar el método de investigación que emplea la obra así como el papel que cumple la historia dentro de la misma. Con ello se busca contribuir a los estudios sobre el positivismo mexicano al abordar, en una obra crucial, algunos de sus aspectos metodológicos, históricos y filosóficos. (shrink)

Wilhelm Ostwald, Ernst Mach y Pierre Duhem se encuentran entre los más relevantes críticos del atomismo de finales del siglo XIX. Repasamos y analizamos los argumentos que aducen dichos autores para oponerse a la concepción atomista de la materia. Mostramos cómo esos argumentos surgen de posiciones filosóficas de fondo sobre el fundamento de la naturaleza, el objeto de la ciencia y el papel de la metafísica. Comparamos dichas posiciones filosóficas. Y enmarcamos la crítica del atomismo en el problema epistemológico más (...) general de la explicación para mostrar la tensión entre explicación y experiencia, y su relación con la metafísica. (shrink)

Evidence from many different paradigms (e.g. change blindness, inattentional blindness, transsaccadic integration) indicate that observers are often very poor at reporting changes to their visual environment. Such evidence has been used to suggest that the spatio-temporal coherence needed to represent change can only occur in the presence of focused attention. In four experiments we use modified change blindness tasks to demonstrate (a) that sensitivity to change does occur in the absence of awareness, and (b) this sensitivity does not rely on (...) the redeploy- ment of attention. We discuss these results in relation to theories of scene percep- tion, and propose a reinterpretatio n of the role of attention in representing change. (shrink)

Since 1968, the irreversible loss of functioning of the whole brain, called brain death, is assimilated to individual’s death. The almost universal acceptance of this neurological criterion of death had decisive consequences for the contemporary medicine, such as the withdrawal of mechanical ventilation in these patients and organ retrieval for transplantation. The new criterion was successfully accepted in part because the assimilation of brain death state to death was presented by medicine --and acritically assumed by most of societies-- as a (...) scientific and objective fact. Nevertheless, many people do not think that the patients suffering brain death are actually dead. We show here that those people are not necessarily wrong. It can be argued that, in fact, the justification of the neurological criterion is not scientific but moral. We outline the thesis that the problem surrounding the vital status of brain dead patients is due to a confusion between factual and normative questions. Furthermore, we claim that the donation of organs and the withdrawal of life-support could be ethically acceptable even if the patients suffering brain death are considered as alive. As an alternative to the dead donor rule, we propose a justification for organ donation of brain-dead patients based on the (moral) concepts of harm and consent : what truly justifies the procurement of organs on those patients is not that they are dead, but that they wish to donate their organs and that, since they have irreversibly lost their brain, they cannot be harmed. (shrink)

Induced abortion is a worldwide practice and its legalisation is a persistent demand of the women’s movement. Although in the academic literature there are numerous studies that address the study of fertility, nowhere near as much attention has been given to the analysis of induced abortion and its determining factors, and even less to the consideration of gender equality as a variable through which to understand it. This article focuses on the influence of gender equality on the rate of induced (...) abortion in different European countries. To that end the authors have constructed an econometric panel data model with information from 26 European countries for the period 2006–2011. They have analysed comparative indicators of the gender gap in terms of education, employment and wages. In addition, they have taken into account sociodemographic covariables such as the average age of motherhood, the migration rate and the percentage of births to unmarried mothers in each country. Also, as contextual factors the authors used the Human Development Index and an indicator of the legislation on abortion in the countries studied, as well as the percentage of the population who identify as having religious beliefs. The results show that the induced abortion rate is conditioned not only by national legislation on abortion, but also by gender equalities, specifically that as gender inequality decreases, so too does the frequency of induced abortions. These findings have clear political implications, showing as they do how improvements in the status of women, particularly with respect to their social and economic rights, impact on women’s reproductive decisions. (shrink)

Metacognition refers to any knowledge or cognitive process that monitors or controls cognition. We highlight similarities between metacognitive and executive control functions, and ask how these processes might be implemented in the human brain. A review of brain imaging studies reveals a circuitry of attentional networks involved in these control processes, with its source located in midfrontal areas. These areas are active during conflict resolution, error correction, and emotional regulation. A developmental approach to the organization of the anatomy involved in (...) executive control provides an added perspective on how these mechanisms are influenced by maturation and learning, and how they relate to metacognitive activity. (shrink)