Background: Waiving parent permission can be an option in some epidemiological and social research with adolescents. However, exemptions have not been uniformly considered or applied. Our aim is to critically assess the different factors that could be taken into account when making decisions about waiving active parental permission in observational research with adolescents.DiscussionIn some cases alternatives to parental permission could be applied to protect the rights of both adolescents and parents and also to assure the benefits to adolescents as a (...) group that can come from appropriately conducted studies. However, the criteria of ensuring minimal risk can be difficult to define and apply and a distinction between harm and discomfort is reviewed. Waiving active parental permission could be acceptable when the risk of harm is minimal; when the research questions are related to an activity for which adolescents are not legally considered to be children; when the risk of harm or discomfort may increase if parental permission is required; and when risk of discomfort is low because the questionnaire is not potentially offensive for some adolescents and/or for some parents.SummaryStringent rules concerning parental permission in some studies could be detrimental to adolescents. A framework and a decision tree guide are proposed to help researchers and Research Ethics Committees in their decisions on whether active parental permission must be obtained. (shrink)

In democratic societies, citizens forget the link between public and private affairs, so they isolate themselves form the society. Then, a few people gather all the power in their hands, and despotism arrives. In order to keep freedom, we need to make people discover the value of political participation, by showing them, in quotidian live, their interest on public affairs.

We explore the distinctive characteristics of Mexico's society, politics and history that impacted the establishment of genetics in Mexico, as a new disciplinary field that began in the early 20th century and was consolidated and institutionalized in the second half. We identify about three stages in the institutionalization of genetics in Mexico. The first stage can be characterized by Edmundo Taboada, who was the leader of a research program initiated during the Cárdenas government (1934-1940), which was primarily directed towards improving (...) the condition of small Mexican farmers. Taboada is the first Mexican post-graduate investigator in phytotechnology and phytopathology, trained at Cornell University and the University of Minnesota, in 1932 and 1933, respectively. He was the first investigator to teach plant genetics at the National School of Agriculture and wrote the first textbook of general genetics, Genetics Notes, in 1938. Taboada's most important single genetics contribution was the production of "stabilized" corn varieties. The extensive exile of Spanish intellectuals to Mexico, after the end of Spain's Civil War (1936-1939), had a major influence in Mexican science and characterizes the second stage. The three main personalities contributing to Mexican genetics are Federico Bonet de Marco and Bibiano Fernández Osorio Tafall, at the National School of Biological Sciences, and José Luis de la Loma y Oteyza, at the Chapingo Agriculture School. The main contribution of the Spanish exiles to the introduction of genetics in Mexico concerned teaching. They introduced in several universities genetics as a distinctive discipline within the biology curriculum and wrote genetics text books and manuals. The third stage is identified with Alfonso León de Garay, who founded the Genetics and Radiobiology Program in 1960 within the National Commission of Nuclear Energy, which had been founded in 1956. The Genetics and Radiobiology Program rapidly became a disciplinary program, for it embraced research, teaching, and training of academics and technicians. The Mexican Genetics Society, created by de Garay in 1966, and the development of strains and cultures for genetics research were important activities. One of de Garay's key requirements was the compulsory training of the Program's scientists for at least one or two years in the best universities of the United States and Europe. De Garay's role in the development of Mexican genetics was fundamental. His broad vision encompassed the practice of genetics in all its manifestations. (shrink)

Disasters and public health emergencies raise a variety of ethical dilemmas, often including those that require balancing the best interests of individuals against those of groups or communities. The on-going COVID-19 pandemic provides examples of these ethical conflicts, as do other recent outbreaks. Decisions and actions in this context must address different ethical issues, ranging from those directly related to autonomy, consent, privacy and confidentiality to those related to interventions and technologies, such as efficacy, effectiveness, safety and fair access. This (...) paper aims to identify ethical conflicts with complex resolutions involving aspects related to values, rights and needs of individuals and the collective, and to suggest how such challenges could lead to more positive experiences and outcomes when confronted in future emergencies. (shrink)

Pela pena de homens de letras de Portugal e do Brasil, a aproximação cultural entre os dois países tornou-se um ideal pelo qual valia a pena lutar e que encontrou espaço adequado nas recentes sociedades republicanas de aquém e além-Atlântico. João de Barros e Olavo Bilac foram os arautos deste projecto que, exaltando os laços de uma comum identidade – história, tradição, cultura, raça – e neles se fundamentando, salvaguardadas as respectivas independências, pretendia criar, em conjunto com Angola, uma unidade (...) política de domínio do Atlântico Sul e de interlocutora forte na cena internacional. Neste sentido, deram corpo a uma verdadeira militância que iria encontrar na criação da revista Atlântida, patrocinada por altas entidades da política externa dos dois governos, a sua expressão de maior significado. (shrink)

Positive family functioning during adolescence is usually studied analyzing parents' competences and children's relationship abilities. We present an instrument for the assessment of parental competence, which encompasses both educational style and transmission of values. The objective of the study was to analyze its factor structure and to assess its value in predicting adolescent outcomes. We recruited 2,459 high school students, aged 12–15, in 40 schools from Spain, Peru, Mexico, and Chile. They responded to the instrument and to other questions regarding (...) lifestyles. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were carried out in order to assess the internal structure of the instrument, and internal consistency of the resulting dimensions was calculated. Finally, regression analyses were performed to establish associations between the parenting dimensions and adolescent outcomes. Factor analyses showed a consistent structure, with good fit indices in the four countries. The final four factors include parenting styles and education in values. Regression analyses showed associations with adolescent outcomes. For example, adolescents' life satisfaction was best predicted by Warmth and Education in fortitude. Practical implications are suggested. (shrink)

En nuestros días las teorías cosmopolitas han experimentado una revitalización significativa al albur de la intensificación de las relaciones humanas que ha propiciado el fenómeno de la globalización. En las últimas décadas, particularmente desde la caída del Muro de Berlín, se ha registrado un florecimiento de las tesis cosmopolitas que aspiran a ofrecer un modelo teórico desde el que comprender y transformar la realidad en esta era de apertura y de creciente interdependencia que inaugura la globalización. En este trabajo realizamos (...) una aproximación histórica y conceptual al cosmopolitismo, abundando en las causas de su actual auge y, tras analizar los elementos que conforman el fenómeno de la globalización, que determina un tránsito desde la primera a la segunda modernidad, se formula una propuesta humanista e ilustrada de un _cosmopolitismo gradual_, una concepción realista cosmopolita que permita trascender la estatalidad mediante la implementación de formas de gobernanza multinivel. (shrink)

In this paper we present a new framework of idealization in biology. We characterize idealizations as a network of counterfactual and hypothetical conditionals that can exhibit different “degrees of contingency”. We use this idea to say that, in departing more or less from the actual world, idealizations can serve numerous epistemic, methodological or heuristic purposes within scientific research. We defend that, in part, this structure explains why idealizations, despite being deformations of reality, are so successful in scientific practice. For illustrative (...) purposes, we provide an example from population genetics, the Wright-Fisher Model. (shrink)

Die Absicht des vorliegenden Buches ist es, das Geflecht der unterschiedlichen Fragestellungen, die mit dem Stichwort „Fichte und seine Zeit“ verbunden sind, in Betracht zu ziehen und ihre internen Zusammenhänge und ihre Geschlossenheit deutlich zu machen. The intention of this book is to take the network of different issues that are associated with the main theme " Fichte and his time" into consideration and make their internal relationships and their closeness significantly.

La verdad en cuanto ligada al lenguaje ha de ser concebida simultáneamente como coherencia y como correspondencia. Pero la palabra es siempre, a la vez, impotencia y fuerza creadora. Ahí es donde se sitúa realmente el tema de la verdad. La razón nos sitúa ante la responsabilidad de un proyecto y unos fines. La ciencia nos acerca a la verdad de lo que es la realidad en cuanto "acción racional de la razón practica". Se trata de un proceso de "empastamiento" (...) o progresiva coherencia, que no llega nunca a "tocar" la realidad. Hay una relación dialéctica entre nuestro juicio y la realidad. nuestra imputación de realidad se nos convierte en un "juicio de verdad" hermenéuticamente desvelada. (shrink)

En las coordenadas de la globalización, la crisis del Estado provoca un debilitamiento progresivo de la ciudadanía y de la democracia. La globalización encuentra un sólido aliado en la dispersión institucional propiciada por el modelo del Estado-nación. Por eso, la supervivencia del constitucionalismo en cuanto compromiso axiológico sustantivo desemboca hoy más que nunca en el ideal cosmopolita. Pero el cosmopolitismo constitucional no puede cifrarse en la reducción de la pluralidad a una homogeneidad artificial y forzada. Frente a la vieja y (...) ya caduca imagen de la constitución como cúspide de un ordenamiento jurídico autárquico y autosuficiente, reivindicamos una constitución como momento articulador de complejas redes de normas interdependientes, capaz de evitar que las exigencias fácticas dé los cambiantes flujos normativos transnacionales vulneren las exigencias normativas de los valores constitucionales. (shrink)

In this paper we present a new framework of idealization in biology. We characterize idealizations as a network of counterfactual and hypothetical conditionals that can exhibit different "degrees of contingency". We use this idea to say that, in departing more or less from the actual world, idealizations can serve numerous epistemic, methodological or heuristic purposes within scientific research. We defend that, in part, this structure explains why idealizations, despite being deformations of reality, are so successful in scientific practice. For illustrative (...) purposes, we provide an example from population genetics, the Wright-Fisher Model. (shrink)

Mit dem Untertitel »Streitfragen« bringt dieser Band 44 der Fichte-Studien eine Gruppe von Beiträgen, die das Hauptthema »Fichte und seine Zeit« behandeln und es aus unterschiedlichen Gesichtspunkten entfalten.

Recensión de N. Belloso Martín, El control democrático del poder judicial en España, Universidad de Burgos/ Moinho do Verbo, Curitiba, 1999.

Obra estructurada en cinco ponencias: la primera acerca de aspectos básicos para el posterior desarrollo de las relaciones ciencia-trascendencia; la segunda sobre la difícil consideración acerca del tiempo; la tercera sobre el papel que desempeña la neurocienca; la cuarta sobre las relaciones de la trascendencia ética con lo científico, y la quinta sobre el sentido de la religión y del cristianismo desde el punto de vista de la ciencia.