The emerging field of lipidomics has identified lipids as key players in disease physiology. Their physicochemical diversity allows precise control of cell structure and signaling events through modulation of membrane properties and trafficking of proteins. As such, lipids are important regulators of brain function and have been implicated in neurodegenerative and mood disorders. Importantly, environmental chronic stress has been associated with anxiety and depression and its exposure in rodents has been extensively used as a model to study these diseases. With (...) the accessibility to modern mass‐spectrometry lipidomic platforms, it is now possible to snapshot the extensively interconnected lipid network. Here, we review the fundamentals of lipid biology and outline a framework for the interpretation of lipidomic studies as a new approach to study brain pathophysiology. Thus, lipid profiling provides an exciting avenue for the identification of disease signatures with important implications for diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders. (shrink)

This paper presents an approach to the belief system based on a computational framework in three levels: first, the logic level with the definition of binary local rules, second, the arithmetic level with the definition of recursive functions and finally the behavioural level with the definition of a recursive construction pattern. Social communication is achieved when different beliefs are expressed, modified, propagated and shared through social nets. This approach is useful to mimic the belief system because the defined functions provide (...) different ways to process the same incoming information as well as a means to propagate it. Our model also provides a means to cross different beliefs so, any incoming information can be processed many times by the same or different functions as it occurs is social nets. (shrink)

Based on the results obtained from primary education students—fifth and sixth graders—the aim of this work is to check the appropriate self-perceived behaviors during and at the end of the game. The study population was made up of 698 students from fifth and sixth grade in the Autonomous Region of Castilla–La Mancha (Spain). Data were collected through a questionnaire (scale) on the social skills of primary school students linked to the adequate skills when losing, the adequate skills when winning, and (...) the adequate skills during the game. Study results revealed that analyzed behaviors vary, depending on the moment of the game, being it more frequently during the development of the game than when losing or winning. (shrink)

A couple of decades ago natural phenomena began to be approached from a comprehensive and transdisciplinary point of view, as it was understood that living beings and their environments are not linear but complex. There is no doubt that this perspective of visualizing complexity and working inter-and transdisciplinarily has to be applied. The reflection on the theoretical observation (i.e. meta-observation) involved in the concept of poly-contexturality is the framework in which a theory of complex systems is possible, which in turn (...) enables an observation that oscillates (a concept of chaos theory) between modelsstructured in a hierarchical order (normally linked to a logical-deductive formalization) and models structured in hetero‐hierarchy. And this would allow this reflection to be done in a formalized language that does not follow either the principles of the Aristotelian logic or the postulates of the Kantian transcendental reflection. It is precisely this liberation from the dictates of mono-contextural logic what paves the way to an observation of complexity, in which one or the other language is used to model the states of things, such as the epistemological problems of molecular biology or the social systems. And-what is gaining relevance-it also paves the way to a true transdisciplinary meta-observation, since each discipline chooses its own contexture and only the use of poly-contexturality makesit possible to formulate transdisciplinary relationships within the framework of such meta-logic. (shrink)

Membership in voluntary organizations is associated with individual and social benefits. Due to the negative consequences of the global pandemic on older people, and the governmental challenges posed by population aging, voluntary membership is of great importance to society. To effectively promote volunteering among older people, it is necessary to understand the determinants of voluntary membership. This study analyses the influence of individual values—secular/traditional and survival/self-expression–on voluntary membership among European adults. Specifically, it examines which values orient two age groups, as (...) well as men and women toward a certain type of association. The sample of 31,985 comprises 60% of adults aged 50–64 and 40% aged 65–79; of which 56% are women and 44% men. The empirical estimation considers different levels of data aggregation: individual, national and welfare system, therefore multilevel analysis is used as an analytical strategy. Individual-level variables from the Integrated Values Survey and national-level variables from the World Bank and Eurostat are used. The results indicate that traditional and self-expression values promote membership in voluntary organizations in general more than secular and survival values. However, there are differences according to the type of organization. Furthermore, values are found to moderate the effect of age and gender on voluntary membership. (shrink)

La creación burlada trata de la más terrible de las sospechas: que toda nuestra vida se halle edificada sobre un inmenso fraude. Esta cuarta parte de la importante Seudología general que Miguel Catalán viene preparando durante los últimos años estudia la ilusión del cosmos y el fraude de la vida, dos nociones que han expresado desde antiguo el miedo de los hombres a verse engañados por fuerzas sobrenaturales. La experiencia, tan penosa como universal, del niño que descubre por vez (...) primera la mentira de los adultos, así como el temor a la falsedad del mundo y el fraude de la vida aparecen en los grandes textos originarios, desde los Vedas y Homero hasta el Barroco y los relatos actuales, Matrix o El show de Truman. El libro recoge, pues, las distintas formas culturales en que se ha manifestado la conciencia de que los dioses y otros poderes numinosos, incluyendo la naturaleza deificada, han engañado a los hombres en virtud del inmenso poder y conocimiento de que disponen en comparación con la debilidad y la ignorancia propiamente humanas. A partir de esa conciencia de inferioridad de los hombres se despliegan los tópicos de la vida como engaño de la naturaleza, como juego de los dioses ociosos, como teatro del mundo, como sueño en la mente de Dios, o carrera en el laberinto o ejercicio de poder demiúrgico. Miguel Catalán González (Valencia, 1958), Doctor en Filosofía con una tesis sobre el pragmatismo clásico y profesor de Ética y Deontología en la Universidad UCH-CEU de Valencia, es autor de una veintena de libros, entre los que destacan sus obras filosóficas Pensamiento y acción o Proceso a la guerra, la colección de aforismos El sol de medianoche (Edicions de Ponent, 2001) y el prólogo a su propio Diccionario de falsas creencias (Ronsel, 2002), que manifiesta por vez primera el interés del autor por las relaciones entre error y falsedad. Con El prestigio de la lejanía. Ilusión, autoengaño y utopía (Ronsel, 2004), Premio de Ensayo Juan Gil-Albert en 1998 y a su vez de la Crítica Valenciana en 2005, Catalán dio inicio a su investigación sobre el engaño. A este siguió Antropología de la mentira (Muchnik, 2005), que fue premio de ensayo Alfons el Magnànim, y en tercer lugar, Anatomía del secreto (Muchnik, 2008). Ha sido editor y traductor, entre otros, de Karl Krause, Marcel Proust y Ambrose Bierce. En 2005 obtuvo el Premio Nacional de Investigación “Ángel Herrera” por su labor en el ámbito de las ciencias sociales. (shrink)

Based on research on the increasingly popular unconscious thought effect (UTE), it has been suggested that physicians might make better diagnostic decisions after a period of distraction than after an equivalent amount of time of conscious deliberation. However, published attempts to demonstrate the UTE in medical decision making have yielded inconsistent results. In the present study, we report the results of a meta-analysis of all the available evidence on the UTE in medical decisions made by expert and novice clinicians. The (...) meta-analysis failed to find a significant contribution of unconscious thought to the accuracy of medical decisions. This result cannot be easily attributed to any of the potential moderators of the UTE that have been discussed in the literature. Furthermore, a Bayes Factor analysis shows that most experimental conditions provide positive support for the null hypothesis, suggesting that these null results do not reflect a simple lack of statistical power. We suggest ways in which new studies could usefully provide further evidence on the UTE. Unless future research shows otherwise, the recommendation of using unconscious thought to improve medical decisions lacks empirical support. (shrink)

This article outlines the theoretical developments experienced in historical studies over the last two decades. As a consequence of the growing critical reconsideration of some of the main theoretical assumptions underlying historical explanation of individuals' meaningful actions, a new theory of society has taken shape among historians during this time. By emphasizing the empirical and analytical distinction between language as a pattern of meanings and language as a means of communication, a significant group of historians has thoroughly recast the conventional (...) notions of society, experience, interests, culture, and identity, and has developed a new concept of social action. Thus, historiographical debate seems to have started to transcend, for the first time, the longstanding and increasingly futile contest or dilemma between objectivism and subjectivism, between materialism and culturalism, between social and intentional explanation, or between social constraints and human agency. The groundwork has now been laid for an alternative to the declining paradigm of social history that does not entail a revisionist return to idealist history but opens a quite different path. (shrink)

The coexistence of genetically modified (GM) crops and non-GM crops is a myth because the movement of transgenes beyond their intended destinations is a certainty, and this leads to genetic contamination of organic farms and other systems. It is unlikely that transgenes can be retracted once they have escaped, thus the damage to the purity of non-GM seeds is permanent. The dominant GM crops have the potential to reduce biodiversity further by increasing agricultural intensification. There are also potential risks to (...) biodiversity arising from gene flow and toxicity to nontarget organisms from herbicide-resistant (HT) and insect-resistant (Bt) crops. Unless whole regions are declared GM agriculture free, the development of distinct systems of agriculture (GM and non-GM) will be impossible as GM agriculture emerges at the expense of all other forms of production. (shrink)

Breve diccionario filosófico Libro de consulta y de introducción a la filosofía. La mayoría de sus artículos presentan una breve referencia final a otras voces complementarias. Indice analítico de autores y materias.

Higher plants must undergo a major developmental switch, the transition to flowering, if they are to successfully complete their life cycle. In many plants, the crucial decision of when to begin to produce flowers is primarily controlled by environmental signals. The process of floral induction involves the integration of the activities of two types of genes: those that control flowering time as a response to the environment as well as an endogenous clock, and those that determine the floral identity of (...) the cells. The first direct link between these two classes of genes has now been demonstrated(1). Forced expression of CONSTANS, a flowering‐time gene, promotes flowering through the transcriptional activation of LEAFY, a flower‐meristem‐identity gene. (shrink)

My main concern in this article is to arrive at a clear view of the nature, extent, and value of Descartes’ universal doubt, not to determine whether Hume’s critique of Cartesian doubt is compellin...