Psychosocial work factors are implicated in the development of stress and job satisfaction. This relationship has been scarcely studied in so-called singular activities, as is the case of professional drivers. This cross-sectional study of 601 professional drivers assesses psychosocial risks and job satisfaction using Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire and Overall Job Satisfaction questionnaire models. The values of the psychosocial scales of professional drivers were compared with thresholds values of the Spanish working population. The relationships of the psychosocial scales with the level (...) of job satisfaction were examined using logistic regression models, adjusted for age, gender, length of driving license and years of experience. In general, professional drivers have an unfavorable psychosocial environment compared to the average Spanish workers. The relationship between psychosocial scales and job satisfaction is observed, with the most influential variables being the meaning and development of work, integration in the company, social relations, esteem and level of psychological demands. (shrink)

RESUMEN -/- Este texto ofrece una reflexión sobre una forma concreta en la que la teoría mimética desarrollada por René Girard se ha llevado a la práctica investigativa. Discute la diferencia que marca Heidegger entre el investigar de la ciencia y el preguntar de la filosofía. Éste será el marco desde el cual Girard avanza en su pregunta por el origen, la cual rastrea hasta la violencia fundadora, omnipresente en lo sagrado de toda cultura. Esto plantea el problema de las (...) posibilidades de investigar desde un marco que no reproduzca la violencia. -/- ABSTRACT -/- This text reflects upon the way in which Rene Girard's Mimetic Theory has been applied to concrete research practice. It argues from the major difference made by Heidegger between the inquiry of science and the questioning of philosophy. This being the context from which Girard asks about the origin in order to track down the original omnipresent violence underlying in the role of sacred of every culture. These considerations suggest possibilities of researching from contexts which do not reproduce violence. (shrink)

Over the last few years, a new methodology to address the P versus NP problem has been developed, based on searching for borderlines between the nonefficiency of computing models and the presumed efficiency. These borderlines can be seen as frontiers of efficiency, which are crucial in this methodology. “Translating,” in some sense, an efficient solution in a presumably efficient model to an efficient solution in a nonefficient model would give an affirmative answer to problem P versus NP. In the framework (...) of Membrane Computing, the key of this approach is to detect the syntactic or semantic ingredients that are needed to pass from a nonefficient class of membrane systems to a presumably efficient one. This paper deals with tissue P systems with communication rules of type symport/antiport allowing the evolution of the objects triggering the rules. In previous works, frontiers of efficiency were found in these kinds of membrane systems both with division rules and with separation rules. However, since they were not optimal, it is interesting to refine these frontiers. In this work, optimal frontiers of the efficiency are obtained in terms of the total number of objects involved in the communication rules used for that kind of membrane systems. These optimizations could be easier to translate, if possible, to efficient solutions in a nonefficient model. (shrink)

Understanding the causes of maize landrace loss in farmers’ field is essential to design effective conservation strategies. These strategies are necessary to ensure that genetic resources are available in the future. Previous studies have shown that this loss is caused by multiple factors. In this longitudinal study, we used a collection of 93 maize landrace accessions from Morelos, Mexico, and stored at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center Maize Germplasm Bank, to trace back to the original 66 donor families (...) after 50 years and explore the causes for why they abandoned or conserved their seed lots. We used an actor-centered approach, based on interviews and focus group discussions. We adopt a Multi-Level Perspective framework to examine loss as a process, accommodating multiple causes and the interactions among them. We found that the importance of maize landrace cultivation had diminished over the last 50 years in the study area. By 2017, 13 families had conserved a total of 14 seed lots directly descended from the 1967 collection. Focus group participants identified 60 accessions that could still be found in the surrounding municipalities. Our findings showed that multiple interconnected changes in maize cultivation technologies, as well as in maize markets, other crop markets, agricultural and land policies, cultural preferences, urbanization and climate change, have created an unfavorable environment for the conservation of maize landraces. Many of these processes were location- and landrace-specific, and often led to landrace abandonment during the shift from one farmer generation to the next. (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)

Resumen: Esta investigación busca dar cuenta de los espacios que habitan los personajes del cuento Alegres, libres y ruidosas de Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. Mediante los detalles que nos entrega el narrador, revisaremos los “operadores tonales”, estableciendo los enunciados descriptivos y los detalles inherentes a ellos, en cuanto a la composición de los personajes, así como el tipo de espacio en que se realizan, construyendo una identidad transgresora bajo la perspectiva de la poética de lo soez. En este sentido, los personajes (...) serán “máquinas deseantes” que irrumpen en la realidad con un flujo sistemático de líquidos descompuestos que arrastran residuos políticos, éticos y estéticos presentes en la Cuba contemporánea. Así, podríamos hablar de un sexo eminentemente político que no se presenta denotativamente en el cuento sino en las metáforas construidas por aquellos operadores que fijan el “tono” del relato. Por último, postulamos que los detalles funcionan como “pistas” de una historia secreta que funciona bajo la historia visible que se narra en el cuento.: This research seeks to explain the spaces inhabited by characters from the story Alegres, libres y ruidosas by Pedro Juan Gutiérrez. Thoughout the details provided by the narrator, we will review “tone operators”, determining their descriptive and inherent statements, concerning characters, the space in which they are realized by building a transgressor identity under the view poetics of the vulgar. In this sense, the characters are "desiring machines" that burst into reality with a systematic flow of decomposed liquids that drag political, ethical and aesthetic residues present in contemporary Cuba. Thus, we could speak of an eminently political sex that does not occur denotatively in the story but in the metaphors constructed by those operators who fix the "tone" of the story. Finally, we postulate that the details function as "clues" of a secret story that works under the visible story told in the tale. (shrink)

To assess—from a qualitative perspective—the perceptions and attitudes of Spanish rehabilitation professionals (e.g. rehabilitation doctors, speech therapists, physical therapists) about Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) technology. A qualitative, exploratory and descriptive study was carried out by means of interviews and analysis of textual content with mixed generation of categories and segmentation into frequency of topics. We present the results of three in-depth interviews that were conducted with Spanish speaking individuals who had previously completed a survey as part of a larger, 3-country/language, survey (...) on BCI perceptions. 11 out of 15 of these Spanish respondents (survey) either strongly or somewhat accept the use of BCI in rehabilitation therapy. However, the results of our three in-depth interviews show how, due to a strong inertia of attitudes and perceptions about BCI technology, most professionals feel reluctant to use BCI technology in their daily practice (interview). (shrink)

Understanding the causes of maize landrace loss in farmers’ field is essential to design effective conservation strategies. These strategies are necessary to ensure that genetic resources are available in the future. Previous studies have shown that this loss is caused by multiple factors. In this longitudinal study, we used a collection of 93 maize landrace accessions from Morelos, Mexico, and stored at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Maize Germplasm Bank, to trace back to the original 66 donor (...) families after 50 years and explore the causes for why they abandoned or conserved their seed lots. We used an actor-centered approach, based on interviews and focus group discussions. We adopt a Multi-Level Perspective framework to examine loss as a process, accommodating multiple causes and the interactions among them. We found that the importance of maize landrace cultivation had diminished over the last 50 years in the study area. By 2017, 13 families had conserved a total of 14 seed lots directly descended from the 1967 collection. Focus group participants identified 60 accessions that could still be found in the surrounding municipalities. Our findings showed that multiple interconnected changes in maize cultivation technologies, as well as in maize markets, other crop markets, agricultural and land policies, cultural preferences, urbanization and climate change, have created an unfavorable environment for the conservation of maize landraces. Many of these processes were location- and landrace-specific, and often led to landrace abandonment during the shift from one farmer generation to the next. (shrink)

Animal vocalizations convey important information about the emitter, including sex, age, biological quality, and emotional state. Early on, Darwin proposed that sex differences in auditory signals and vocalizations were driven by sexual selection mechanisms. In humans, studies on the association between male voice attributes and physical formidability have thus far reported mixed results. Hence, with a view to furthering our understanding of the role of human voice in advertising physical formidability, we sought to identify acoustic attributes of male voices associated (...) with physical formidability proxies. Mean fundamental frequency, formant dispersion, formant position, and vocal tract length data from a sample of 101 male voices was analyzed for potential associations with height, weight, and maximal handgrip strength. F0 correlated negatively with HGS; Pf showed negative correlations with HGS, height and weight, whereas VTL positively correlated with HGS, height and weight. All zero-order correlations remained significant after controlling for false discovery rate with the Benjamini–Hochberg method. After controlling for height and weight—and controlling for FDR—the correlation between F0 and HGS remained significant. In addition, to evaluate the ability of human male voices to advertise physical formidability to potential mates, 151 heterosexual female participants rated the voices of the 10 strongest and the 10 weakest males from the original sample for perceived physical strength, and given that physical strength is a desirable attribute in male partners, perceived attractiveness. Generalized linear mixed model analyses—which allow for generalization of inferences to other samples of both raters and targets—failed to support a significant association of perceived strength or attractiveness from voices alone and actual physical strength. These results add to the growing body of work on the role of human voices in conveying relevant biological information. (shrink)

Psychological flexibility is a key concept of acceptation and commitment therapy. This factor has been linked with psychological wellbeing and associated factors, such as quality of life, in cancer patients. These and other positive results of acceptation and commitment therapy in cancer patients found in previous research could be enhanced by using mhealth tools. A three-arm randomized superiority clinical trial, with a pre-post-follow-up repeated measures intergroup design with a 1:1:1 allocation ratio is proposed. A hundred and twenty cancer patients will (...) be randomly assigned to one of the following interventions: face-to-face ACT + mobile application, face-to-face ACT, and Waitlist control group. The primary expected outcome is to observe significant improvements in psychological flexibility acceptance and action questionnaire- II in the face-to-face ACT + app group, after comparing baseline and post-treatment scores, and the scores will remain stable in the two assessment points, 3 and 6 months after the intervention. Secondary expected outcomes are significant increasing scores in quality of life and post-traumatic-growth, and significant decreasing scores in anxiety and depression, insomnia and fatigue at the same assessment points. Also, it is expected that the scores of this group will be higher than the scores of the face-to-face ACT group and the waitlist control group. This study aims to assess the efficacy of a combined intervention for psychological flexibility and associated symptoms in cancer patients. The results of this protocol may help to consider the use of acceptation and commitment therapy and mhealth applications in cancer settings as a valid therapeutic choice.Clinical Trial Registration[www.ClinicalTrials.gov], identifier [NCT05126823]. (shrink)

Selective attention depends on goal-directed and stimulus-driven modulatory factors, each relayed by different brain rhythms. Under certain circumstances, stress-related states can change the balance between goal-directed and stimulus-driven factors. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying these changes remain unclear. In this study, we explored how psychosocial stress can modulate brain rhythms during an attentional task and a task-free period. We recorded the EEG and ECG activity of 42 healthy participants subjected to either the Trier Social Stress Test, a controlled procedure to (...) induce stress, or a comparable control protocol, flanked by an attentional task, a 90 s of task-free period and a state of anxiety questionnaire. We observed that psychosocial stress induced an increase in heart rate, self-reported anxiety, and alpha power synchronization. Also, psychosocial stress evoked a relative beta power increase during correct trials of the attentional task, which correlates positively with anxiety and heart rate increase, and inversely with attentional accuracy. These results suggest that psychosocial stress affects performance by redirecting attentional resources toward internal threat-related thoughts. An increment of endogenous top-down modulation reflected an increased beta-band activity that may serve as a compensatory mechanism to redirect attentional resources toward the ongoing task. The data obtained here may contribute to designing new ways of clinical management of the human stress response in the future and could help to minimize the damaging effects of persistent stressful experiences. (shrink)

La reciente ley sobre el lobby en Chile es el resultado de un proceso de varios años durante los cuales se ha discutido el tema sin mucha profundidad, y casi con exclusiva referencia a la experiencia norteamericana. Ahora surge la necesidad que los cientistas sociales empiecen a investigar esta área, y en especial cómo aplicar este instrumento en la actividad política de Chile, aunque se utiliza desde hace décadas sin siquiera identificarlo. El libro de Rodríguez es una buena introducción al (...) .. (shrink)

Estoy seguro que la comunidad filosófica de habla española celebrará la publicación de este libro de la Dra. Angélica Rodríguez Ortiz, pues se trata de una argumentación muy bien hilvanada a favor de la idea de que la moral tiene una naturaleza biopragmática. El texto es el resultado de su tesis doctoral, en cuya defensa oral estuve presente como sinodal externo. La principal tesis que la autora defiende, decíamos, es que la moralidad es posible gracias a la naturaleza de nuestra (...) mente, y a que poseemos un lenguaje. En palabras de Wittgenstein, diríamos que el juego del lenguaje moral tiene una base biológica, ya que compartimos una historia natural y un fundamento social, en tanto que la competencia lingüística supone la existencia de una comunidad de hablantes. Dicho de otra manera, nuestra constitución neurofisiológica es uno de los pilares sobre los que descansa la moralidad; el otro es el lenguaje, el cual fija los significados de nuestras palabras, es decir, su uso correcto e incorrecto. (shrink)

En 1501, Mario Equicola concluye el _Perigynaecon_, la única obra filógina que el humanista de Alvito compondría en toda su vida. Este tratado se idea con una clara finalidad instrumental, pues el autor deseaba entrar al servicio de Isabella d’Este, marquesa consorte de Mantua. Precisamente por ello, tras cada uno de los argumentos que Equicola presenta y detrás de cada una de las mujeres ejemplares que menciona para ensalzar el valor femenino a lo largo de la historia se pueden (...) establecer paralelismos más o menos claros con los problemas que Isabella tuvo que afrontar en su primera década en la corte mantuana. En este artículo analizamos la función que Veturia desempeña en el seno del elenco de mujeres ejemplares del _Perigynaecon_ y profundizamos en algunos de los motivos que podrían haber empujado a Equicola a decantarse por incluir a la madre de Coriolano entre las mujeres a las que alude en su tratado. (shrink)

En The paradox of Addition and its dissolution (1969), Mario Bunge presenta algunos argumentos para mostrar que la Regla de Adición puede ocasionar paradojas o problemas semánticos. Posteriormente, Margáin (1972) y Robles (1976) mostraron que las afirmaciones de Bunge son insostenibles, al menos desde el punto de vista de la lógica clásica. Aunque estamos de acuerdo con las críticas de Margáin y Robles, no estamos de acuerdo en el diagnóstico del origen del problema y tampoco con la manera en (...) la que se proponen solucionarlo. En esta medida, en este texto mostraremos cómo la Regla de Adición sí trae problemas semánticos que pueden ser planteados desde diferentes perspectivas contemporáneas, como la extensionalidad del condicional, los principios proscriptivos y la validez conexiva. (shrink)

In this paper we briefly expose a project which could be summed up as ‘doing justice to Mario Pieri’. The main result of the project will be the publication of a book on him, in which we will mainl...

The world's population is currently overcoming one of the worst pandemics, and the psychological and social effects of this are becoming more apparent. We will present an analysis of the psychosocial effects of COVID-19: first, a cross-sectional study in an Ecuadorian sample and second, a comparative study between two samples from the Ecuadorian and Spanish populations. Participants completed an online survey to describe how they felt before and after confinement; analyze which emotional and behavioral variables predict depressive symptoms, anxiety, and (...) stress perceived after the confinement; carry out a comparative study in a sample of Ecuadorian and Spanish surveys. Results indicate, first, that Ecuadorians experience significantly more depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress after confinement. Second, variables which predict depressive symptoms and anxiety are greater public prosocial tendency, less stress as a challenge, and greater stress as a threat, as well as an empathetic tendency that implies greater emotional regulation. Experienced stress after confinement was predicted by a greater public prosocial tendency, as well as an empathetic tendency. Finally, scores for depression, anxiety, and stress are higher after confinement in both countries. However, results reveal the similarity of the psychosocial effects that are being experienced, regardless of the country, and the differences in the variables that can help explain these effects. This can contribute to the constitution of intervention plans which aim to soften and alleviate the effects produced by a situation such as that experienced with COVID-19. (shrink)

To begin with, it is analysed the representation of the urban space which is articulated in some classical and utopian stories (Moro, Campanella). In these stories we are facing with a proposal of ideal society as expression of an organizing will of human reason which faces with nature and bets for the construction of a better future. In this context, those cities dreamt by utopias must be considered as imaginary skethes in a concept of real construction which determined a large (...) extent of urban modernity. Such utopian will has suffered an important break throughout the second half of XX Century, such as it is testified by a serial of anti-utopia stories both in literature (Orwell, Huxley or Dick); and above all, in the recently filmography (Blade Runner, Brazil or Matrix). This displacement in future cities´desing entails not only a reversal on the utopian speech codes, which would be the real reflection of the contemporary experience of the subject inside the urban space, but also a consequence of the development and crisis in Western modernity. In addition, this involves a decisive mutation in the concept of future which would affect substantially to our civilization in the beginning of the XXI Century. (shrink)

Rodrigo Castro Orellana La première partie de l’article analyse certains des aspects fondamentaux du débat sur la théologie politique, principalement à partir des recherches de Carl Schmitt. Ensuite, il étudie la mise à jour de cette controverse par Giorgio Agamben en identifiant ses principaux enjeux théoriques et politiques. Enfin, dans la troisième section, l’article étudie le contraste entre le concept de pouvoir pastoral de Michel Foucault et la version spécifique de la sécularisation proposée par le paradigme théologico-historique.

Resumen: El artículo estudia los aspectos fundamentales de la crítica de Dussel al modelo formal de hegemonía desarrollado por Laclau. En este contexto, se presenta la propuesta de una hegemonía popular ligada a la centralidad de la reproducción de la vida como criterio normativo de la política y se denuncia el decisionismo abstracto de la teoría populista laclauniana. Pero también en este texto se ofrece, siguiendo la lectura de Castro-Gómez, una crítica de las tesis de Dussel desde un punto de (...) vista postfundacionalista, lo que supone cuestionar la idea misma de un universal incondicionado. Finalmente, concluimos exponiendo una crítica a algunas de las coordenadas teóricas compartidas por ambos autores, identificando las limitaciones del concepto mismo de hegemonía.: This article studies the fundamental aspects of Dussel’s critique of the formal model of hegemony developed by Laclau. In this context, a concept of popular hegemony tied to the centrality of the reproduction of life as a normative criterion in politics is proposed, as well as an argument against the abstract decisionism of the populist theory of Laclau. The text also offers -as suggested by Castro-Gomez’s reading- a critique of Dussel’s ideas from a post-foundationalist perspective, which leads to questioning the very idea of an unconditional universal. Finally, we conclude by positing a critique of some of the theoretical viewpoints shared by both authors, identifying the limitations of the very concept of hegemony. (shrink)