This paper analyses the way in which discourse and argumentation may vary depending on participants’ educational level and gender. Men and women from three different educational levels (literacy, advanced level and university students) participated in discussion groups that debated about women and work, the sharing of housework and the way in which girls and boys are educated. The results showed important differences depending on participants’ educational level and gender. In general, the main differences were related to educational level, while gender (...) tended to interact with educational level, as a moderating factor. (shrink)

The blackbody radiation field is studied from different points of view. The existence of zero-point fluctuations is shown to be crucial in determining the form of the thermal part of the spectrum. The notion of a continuous field is seen to be compatible with a discrete structure for its interaction: The description normally used in the quantum context does not refer to the field but to its interaction with atomic systems, which involves statistically independent elementary acts of absorption and emission. (...) The same classical field has different effects on absorption and on emission, and these are conveniently, but not necessarily, described in terms of non-commuting operators. (shrink)

Based on the literature on stakeholder management and family firm dynamics, this research analyses the relationship between three constructs: the identification of business families with their family firms, FFs’ orientation toward key non-family stakeholders, and the achievement of better economic performance. Data analyses from 374 family and non-family members of 173 Spanish FFs show that a high level of family identification with their firms affects the orientation of FFs toward key non-family stakeholders in setting corporate goals and that this orientation (...) will lead to higher economic performance only when it is built on family identification with the firm. Our results also show that the significance of both relationships changes with the degree of family involvement in the management of the FF. (shrink)

RESUMENEl artículo analiza el papel desempeñado por los argumentos de pendiente resbaladiza en los debates prácticos. Por un lado, estos argumentos suelen ejemplificar una forma d razonamiento imperfecto o paradójico. De hecho, la Filosofía clásica griega ya identificó las principales dificultades del sorites, el argumento del «montón». Por otro lado, la pendiente resbaladiza llama de nuevo la atención de la Filosofía contemporánea, ya que ocupa un lugar destacado en determinadas cuestiones morales, como pueden ser la eutanasia, los límites de la (...) investigación biomédica, o las posibles consecuencias de la intervención humana sobre el medio ambiente natural y sobe otras especies, no humanas. De esta forma, la Ética aplicada examina los riesgos y efecto son deseables de decisiones que, el comienzo, eran o parecían perfectamente aceptables, y lo hace así a pesar de que la metáfora de la pendiente resbaladiza no pueda aportar suficientes evidencias para frenar aquellas decisiones que comportan riesgos. Aun así, la pendiente sirve para expresar el peligro, la tragedia, los efectos negativos que amenazarían nuestra existencia, o la de las generaciones futuras. Por lo tanto, imágenes como la «caja de Pandora», la «ruptura de los diques», el «alud», no solo transmiten que algunas acciones pueden poner en riesgo la vida sino que, además, ilustran el uso práctico de los argumentos imperfectos.PALABRAS CLAVEpendiente resbaladiza, argumentación práctica, Ética aplicada.ABSTRACTThe article would analyze the role of the slippery-slope arguments in practical debates. On the one hand, they usually exemplify the imperfect, paradoxical reasoning; in fact, the ancient Greek Philosophy already identified the central flaws of the sorites, the «heap» argument. On the other hand, the metaphor of the slippery-slope draws again the attention of contemporary Philosophy, since it has a central part in some ethical issues, as happens with questions like euthanasia, the limits of biomedical research, and the possible consequences of the human action on the natural environment, and on non-humans. So, applied Ethics considers risks and undesirable effects of decisions that, at the very beginning, are, or seem acceptable, in spite of the fact that the slippery-slope could not allege enough evidences to prevent from this risky decision. However, it expresses how danger, tragedy, negative outcome would intrude in our existence, or in the existence of the next generations. Therefore, images like the «Pandora’s box», the «broken docks», the «avalanche», etc, not only suggest that some actions could definitively endanger life, but they illustrate the practical use of imperfect arguments.KEY WORDSslippery- slope, practical argumentation, applied Ethics. (shrink)

The present paper reveals (non-relativistic) quantum mechanics as an emergent property of otherwise classical ergodic systems embedded in a stochastic vacuum or zero-point radiation field (zpf). This result provides a theoretical basis for understanding recent numerical experiments in which a statistical analysis of an atomic electron interacting with the zpf furnishes the quantum distribution for the ground state of the H atom. The action of the zpf on matter is essential within the present approach, but it is the ergodic demand (...) what ultimately leads to the matrix formulation of quantum mechanics. The paper thus represents a step forward in the quest for an elucidation of the fundamentals of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

We discuss the main results of Linear Stochastic Electrodynamics, starting from a reformulation of its basic assumptions. This theory shares with Stochastic Electrodynamics the core assumption that quantization comes about from the permanent interaction between matter and the vacuum radiation field, but it departs from it when it comes to considering the effect that this interaction has on the statistical properties of the nearby field. In the transition to the quantum regime, correlations between field modes of well-defined characteristic frequencies arise, (...) which coincide with the transition frequencies of quantum mechanics and are therefore directly related with the energy quantization. The Heisenberg equations of motion of (non-relativistic) quantum electrodynamics are thus obtained. After a detailed consideration of the significance of the approximations made, we present a discussion on some of the most delicate or controversial features of quantum mechanics from the perspective provided by the present theory. (shrink)

We formulate from first principles a theory of stochastic processes in configuration space. The fundamental equations of the theory are an equation of motion which generalizes Newton's second law and an equation which expresses the condition of conservation of matter. Two types of stochastic motion are possible, both described by the same general equations, but leading in one case to classical Brownian motion behavior and in the other to quantum mechanical behavior. The Schrödinger equation, which is derived here with no (...) further assumption, is thus shown to describe a specific stochastic process. It is explicitly shown that only in the quantum mechanical process does the superposition of probability amplitudes give rise to interference phenomena; moreover, the presence of dissipative forces in the Brownian motion equations invalidates the superposition principle. At no point are any special assumptions made concerning the physical nature of the underlying stochastic medium, although some suggestions are discussed in the last section. (shrink)

An analysis is briefly presented of the possible causes of the failure of stochastic electrodynamics (SED) when applied to systems with nonlinear forces, on the basis that the main principles of the theory are correct. In light of this analysis, an alternative approach to the theory is discussed, whose postulates allow to establish contact with quantum mechanics in a natural way. The ensuing theory, linear SED, confirms the essential role of the vacuum–particle interaction as the source of quantum phenomena.

A partir del comentario hecho por José L. L. Aranguren sobre «puede» y «debe» en ética, aquí se plantea el significado de los principios de ética en la situación de retroceso democrático del siglo XXI. Ha sido analizada por la filosofía y la teoría política recientes. En los años sesenta, las críticas de D. Sternberger al modelo de polis, de política cívica en las obras de H. Arendt, se apoyaban en la imagen de la ciudad hundida. Pero las preguntas sobre (...) el alcance del realismo («puede») y el lugar de los principios («debe») siguen abiertas. ¿Ultra posse nemo obligatur? Aquella imagen de la polis puede ser reemplazada por otra algo distinta, la ciudad sumergida. Se encuentra en la literatura, sería también la metáfora de la necesaria reconstrucción de las políticas democráticas, con el «deber ser» como núcleo de la cultura cívica. Los principios éticos y, en especial, justicia como equidad será aquí la referencia en dos situaciones: (1) la política de salud pública, (2) los procesos de paz. En conclusión, el marco normativo cuenta o ha de contar, tanto en la paz como en la guerra. Decir «nunca más» es también una forma de recordar el papel crucial de los principios. (shrink)

The connection between stochastic electrodynamics (SED) and the quantum theory of matter is further explored. The main result is that the Fokker-Planck-like equation of SED can be recast into the form of a Schrödinger equation with radiative corrections, when the system is close to a state of equilibrium. The phase-space distribution can be written as Wigner's pseudo-distribution plus corrections due to the nonlinearity of the external force and to radiative effects. The radiative corrections predicted by the theory, namely the Lamb (...) shift and the decay of excited atomic states, coincide with those predicted by QED. Moreover, the theory offers a clear physical interpretation of these phenomena as due to the coupling of the electric dipole of the system with the zero-point radiation field and to radiation reaction, respectively. (shrink)

El objetivo es conocer las circunstancias y tratamiento judicial de asesinatos por violencia de género. Se plantea el diagnóstico forense de muerte, se exponen resultados de la investigación realizada por Genovés et al. en 2018 sobre150 casos de muerte por violencia de género en Andalucía, se plantea un posible patrón de conducta basado en la teoría de los pensamientos obsesivos y rumia silenciosa. Los resultados muestran una violencia anunciada, sin trastornos mentales graves, los asesinatos se mantienen constantes en el tiempo, (...) la violencia empleada suele ser excesiva en comparación con otras muertes, el instrumento más usado es arma blanca, el agresor no se esconde, no suele arrepentirse, la calificación ha sido de asesinato en un 79%, concurriendo alevosía en un 91% de los casos, la indefensión de la víctima es buscada y utilizada por el agresor, el domicilio familiar es el lugar donde más asesinatos se producen. Se aprecia una evolución positiva en la aplicación del derecho. Es necesaria la perspectiva de género en la Justicia. (shrink)

The origin of the wave properties of matter is discussed from the point of view of stochastic electrodynamics. A nonrelativistic model of a charged particle with an effective structure embedded in the random zeropoint radiation field reveals that the field induces a high-frequency vibration on the particle; internal consistency of the theory fixes the frequency of this jittering at mc2/ħ. The particle is therefore assumed to interact intensely with stationary zeropoint waves of this frequency as seen from its proper frame (...) of reference; such waves, identified here as de Broglie's phase waves, give rise to a modulated wave in the laboratory frame, with de Broglie's wavelength and phase velocity equal to the particle velocity. The time-independent equation that describes this modulated wave is shown to be the stationary Schrödinger equation (or the Klein-Gordon equation in the relativistic version). In a heuristic analysis appled to simple periodic cases, the quantization rules are recovered from the assumption that for a particle in a stationary state there must correspond a stationary modulation.Along an independent and complementary line of reasoning, an equation for the probability amplitude in configuration space for a particle under a general potential V(x) is constructed, and it is shown that under conditions derived from stochastic electrodynamics it reduces to Schrödinger's equation. This equation reflects therefore the dual nature of the quantum particles, by describing simultaneously the corresponding modulated waveand the ensemble of particles. (shrink)

There are many real-world applications like healthcare systems, job monitoring, well-being and personal fitness tracking, monitoring of elderly and frail people, assessment of rehabilitation and follow-up treatments, affording Fall Detection (FD) and ADL (Activity of Daily Living) identification, separately or even at a time. However, the two main drawbacks of these solutions are that most of the times, the devices deployed are obtrusive (devices worn on not quite common parts of the body like neck, waist and ankle) and the poor (...) battery life. Thus, this work proposes a low-power classification algorithm based on an Ensemble of KNN and K-Means algorithms (EKMeans) to identify Falls and High-Intensity ADL events such as running, jogging and climbing up stairs. The input of EKMeans are triaxial accelerometer data gathered from wrist-wearable devices. The proposal will be validated on the Fall&ADL publicly available datasets UMAFall, UCIFall and FallAllD, considering two kinds of activity labelling: Two-Class and Multi-Class. An exhaustive comparative study between our proposal, and the baseline algorithms KNN and a feed-forward Neural Network (NN) is deployed, where EKMeans outperformed clearly the Specificity (ADL classification) of the KNN and NN for the three datasets. Finally, a comparative battery consumption study has been included deploying the analyzed algorithms in a WearOS smartwatch, where EKMeans drains the battery from 100% to 0% in 27.45 hours, saving 5% and 21% concerning KNN and NN, respectively. Keywords: Human Activity Recognition, ADL Identification, Fall Detection TS Clustering, TS Classification, Wearable Devices, Low-Power HAR. (shrink)

The numerical study of a glycolytic model formed by a system of three delay differential equations reveals a multiplicity of stable coexisting states: birhythmicity, trirhythmicity, hard excitation and quasiperiodic with chaotic regimes. For different initial functions in the phase space one may observe the coexistence of two different quasiperiodic motions, the existence of a stable steady state with a stable torus, and the existence of a strange attractor with different stable regimes (chaos with torus, chaos with bursting motion, and chaos (...) with different periodic regimes). For a single range of the control parameter values our system may exhibit different bifurcation diagrams: in one case a Feigenbaum route to chaos coexists with a finite number of successive periodic bifurcations, in other conditions it is possible to observe the coexistence of two quasiperiodicity routes to chaos. These studies were obtained both at constant input flux and under forcing conditions. (shrink)

We report a scanning tunnelling microscopy investigation of the emission of dislocations around nanoindentations in the form of dislocation arrangements previously called hillocks , consisting of two pairs of Shockley partial dislocations, each encompassing a stacking fault. The spatial arrangement and size distribution of hillocks around the nanoindentation traces are studied. We show that standard dislocation theory for an isotropic continuum can be used to describe the stability of the hillocks, their size and spatial distribution and the broadening of the (...) corresponding extended dislocations near the surface. A model is proposed in which hillocks originate from the split into dislocations partials of primary perfect dislocation loops punched into the crystal by the scanning tunnelling microscope tip. This model implies the operation of a novel dislocation mechanism involving long-range transport of matter across the surface. (shrink)

Arguments are given in favor of a stochastic theory of quantum mechanics, clearly distinguishable from Brownian motion theory. A brief exposition of the phenomenological theory of stochastic quantum mechanics is presented, followed by a list of its main results and perspectives. A possible answer to the question about the origin of stochasticity is given in stochastic electrodynamics by assigning a real character to the vacuum radiation field. This theory is shown to reproduce important quantum mechanical results, some of which are (...) presented explicitly to illustrate its potentialities. Finally the main problems and some perspectives of research within stochastic electrodynamics are discussed. (shrink)