One of the defining features of the classical gene was its position. In molecular genetics, positions are defined instead as nucleotide numbers and there is no clear correspondence with its classical counterpart. However, the classical gene position did not simply disappear with the development of the molecular approach, but survived in the lab associated to different genetic practices. The survival of classical gene position would illustrate Waters’ view about the practical persistence of the genetic approach beyond reductionism and anti-reductionist claims. (...) We show instead that at the level of laboratory practices there are also reductive processes, operating through the rise and fall of different techniques. Molecular markers made the concept of classical gene position practically dispensable, leading us to rethink whether it had any causal role or was just a mere heuristic. (shrink)

Breeds are classifications of domestic animals that share, to a certain degree, a set of conventional phenotypic traits. We are going to defend that, despite classifying biological entities, animal breeds are social kinds. We will adopt Godman’s view of social kinds, classifications with predictive power based on social learning processes. We will show that, although the folk concept of animal breed refers to a biological kind, there is no way to define it. The expert definitions of breeds are instead based (...) on socially learnt conventions and skills (artificial selection), yielding groupings in which scientific predictions are possible. We will discuss in what sense breeds are social, but not human kinds and in what sense the concept of a breed is necessary to make them real. (shrink)

In an ever more transparent, digitalized, and connected environment, customers are increasingly pressuring brands to embrace genuine corporate social responsibility practices and co-creation activities. While both CSR and co-creation are social and collaborative processes, there is still little research examining whether CSR can boost co-creation. In addition, while previous research has mainly related co-creation to emotional outcomes, limited empirical research has related it to rational and behavioral outcomes. To address these shortcomings in the literature, this paper examines the influence of (...) CSR on customer loyalty, considering the mediating roles of co-creation and customer trust. It also investigates the influence of co-creation on customer trust. The data were collected in Spain in late 2017 using an online survey, and the sample contained 1101 customers of health insurance services brands. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships simultaneously. The results show that CSR influences customer loyalty both directly and indirectly through co-creation and customer trust. However, the indirect impact is the stronger of the two, implying that embracing co-creation activities and developing customer trust can make it easier for CSR practices to enhance customer loyalty. In addition, co-creation has a direct effect on customer trust. (shrink)

In order to be competitive in an era of ethical consumerism, brands are facing an ever-increasing pressure to integrate ethical values into their identities and to display their ethical commitment at a corporate level. Nevertheless, studies that relate business ethics to corporate brands are either theoretical or have predominantly been developed empirically in goods contexts. This is surprising, because corporate brands are more relevant in services settings, given the nature of services, and the fact that services settings comprise a greater (...) number of customer–brand interactions and touch points than goods contexts. Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to empirically examine the effects of customer perceived ethicality of corporate brands that operate in the services sector. Based on data collected for eight service categories using a panel of 2179 customers, the hypothesized structural model is tested using path analysis. The generalizability theory is applied to test for measurement equivalence between these categories. The results of the hypothesized model show that, in addition to a direct impact, customer perceived ethicality has a positive and indirect impact on brand equity, through the mediators of recognition benefits and brand image. Moreover, brand heritage negatively influences the impact of customer perceived ethicality on brand image. The main implication is that managers need to be aware of the need to reinforce brand image and recognition benefits, as this can facilitate the translation of customer perceived ethicality into brand equity. (shrink)

To begin with -- Genealogy of the cerebral subject -- Disciplines of the neuro -- Cerebralizing distress -- Brains on screen and paper -- Up for grabs.

To carry out an ethnographic study on the work process in the sterilization unit of a hospital in Catalonia, we found the socially distributed cognition approaches of Hutchins and Kirsh useful. However, these approaches lack sufficient explanation on three important issues: the pragmatic criteria for identifying and delimiting a relevant unit of analysis and therefore the setting and contexts of the work process; the mechanisms and results of reciprocal influences between these levels of analysis; and the relation between these levels. (...) Therefore, we added several new elements to these approaches, in addition to Layder's model of contexts with some important modifications, with the aim of offering an interactive, cognitive and social proposal of analysis that clarifies these three issues, allowing a more exhaustive and broader empirical analysis that captures better the ‘social’ dimension embedded in the work processes. (shrink)

Starting from the Michal Sandel's 2020 book "The Tyranny of Merit", in this essay we will study the resentment of white American workers without college degrees towards political, economic and social elites and its relationship to the phenomenon of disinformation and conspiracy theories, specifically the one known as QAnon. We will first explore Sandel's book and its relationship with paranoia and then we will expose the keys to the QAnon conspiracy theory, which will serve to compare the similarities between its (...) causes and logics with Sandel's reflections on the consequences of meritocracy. (shrink)

Preguntarse por la libertad es hacerlo a la razón y al corazón de nuestra vida. Reconocer el valor de ser, sentirse y vivir libre es reconocerse como humano y por ello aceptar el compromiso feliz e inexcusable del esfuerzo continuado. Una tarea para toda la vida. Es el tema de este libro. Para empezar, ingenuamente, puede plantearse así: ¿En qué consiste la libertad? ¿Existe realmente la libertad, ¿es algo que tengo antes de saberlo, algo que sólo adquiero al saber que (...) lo tengo o algo que para tenerlo debo renunciar a saber con precisión qué es? ¿Soy capaz de libertad o soy libertad y por ello capaz de ser humano? Y tantas, tantas: demasiadas preguntas.. En la primera parte se intenta una antropología a partir de la libertad, es decir considerando la libertad como diferencia específica del género humano. Cuestiones sobre la elección, lo voluntario e involuntario, la intención, el azar,?ayudarán a comprender qué es. En la segunda parte se presenta un breve repertorio de opciones libres argumentadas, destinadas a comprometer las abstracciones de la primera con la peripecia actual que vivimos y en la que somos. Se ofrecen algo así como unos "ejercicios de libertad". ". Es una incitación a continuar pensando y repensando. La filosofía nunca es para mí la cancelación definitiva que nos permite salir de dudas sino el acicate que nos arroja a ellas, permitiéndonos vivir con dignidad inteligente en la ausencia de certidumbres absolutas" (F.Savater). (shrink)

The doctor-patient relationship is a crucial aspect of primary-care practice Research on associations between quality of care provision and burnout and empathy in a primary care setting could improve this relationship. Cross-sectional study of family physicians and nurses of twenty-two primary care centers in the health district of Lleida, Spain. Empathy and burnout were measured using the Jefferson Physician Empathy Scale and the Maslach Burnout Inventory, while quality of care delivery was evaluated using Quality Standard Indicator scores. JPSE and MBI (...) results were grouped into low, medium, and high scores to analyze associations with QSI scores and sociodemographic variables. The mean QSI score recorded for the family physicians and nurses was 665. Higher, albeit insignificant, QSI scores were observed for practitioners with high burnout. No differences were observed according to level of empathy. The differences with respect to sex, age, and area of practice were not significant. Practitioners with low empathy had higher QSI scores than those with high empathy while those with high burnout had higher scores than those with low burnout. Burnout and empathy did not significantly influence quality of care delivery scores in 22 primary care centers. More studies, however, are needed to investigate the unexpected trend observed that suggests that physicians and nurses with higher levels of burnout provide higher quality care. (shrink)

El presente artículo presenta una discusión acerca del carácter contracultural de algunos estilos o culturas juveniles, con las implicaciones políticas que ello conlleva. Para cumplir este objetivo los autores desarrollan un marco de referencia conceptual que sitúa los términos de la discusión, comparando elementos básicos de las culturas “jipis” de principios de los setenta, con las culturas “techno” de los noventa. Uno de los elementos centrales a nivel comparativo, será el consumo de ciertas drogas y sus significados en cada contexto (...) de estilo juvenil. A modo de conclusión, los autores plantean algunas proposiciones acerca del papel de las culturas juveniles, y más en concreto, de sus posibles significados políticos en nuestras sociedades contemporáneas. (shrink)

En este artículo me propongo abordar el problema del tiempo en las sociedades contemporáneas desde un diálogo entre las construcciones teóricas de Moishe Postone y Hartmut Rosa y el trabajo de Michel Foucault. Los dos primeros se han centrado en explicar cómo la temporalidad se ha convertido en un tipo de dominación abstracta, impersonal y cuasiobjetiva a partir de conceptos como la densificación temporal, la aceleración o la hibridación. Foucault, en cambio, concibe el tiempo bajo el prisma de la racionalidad (...) política neoliberal, por la cual el tiempo pasa a ser un recurso que debe gestionarse por los sujetos en términos empresariales y que termina por configurar una ética neoliberal de la administración del tiempo. Este diálogo ejemplifica de manera privilegiada la tensión entre la coacción o la presión temporal y la administración estratégica del tiempo propia de las sociedades contemporáneas. (shrink)

The recent rise in ethical consumerism has seen increasing numbers of corporate brands project a socially responsible and ethical image. But does having a corporate brand that is perceived to be ethical have any influence on outcome variables of interest for its product brands? This study analyzes the relationship between perceived ethicality at a corporate level, and brand trust, brand affect and brand loyalty at a product level. A theoretical framework with hypothesized relationships is developed and tested in order to (...) answer the research question. Data have been collected for 45 product categories in the fast moving consumer goods sector using a panel of 4,027 Spanish consumers. The proposed relationships are tested using structural equations modeling. The results suggest there is a positive relationship between perceived ethicality of a brand and both brand trust and brand affect. Brand affect also positively influences brand trust. Further, brand trust and brand affect both show a positive relation with brand loyalty. The managerial and academic implications of the results are discussed. (shrink)

The paper presents and discusses an example, namely a version of heterogeneous frrst-order logic and uses the classical theorem of Herbrand-Schmidt-Wang about the reduction of heterogeneous first-order logic to homogeneous first-order logic, in order to obtain two transformations between heterogeneous and homogeneous frrst-order logic which are different from the institution morphisms defined by Goguen and Burstall. Moreover, by considering a type of 2-cell among institution morphisms it is obtained a 2-category and also a 2-functor from this to another 2-category.

In the current socioeconomic environment, brands increasingly need to portray societal and ethical commitments at a corporate level, in order to remain competitive and improve their reputation. However, studies that relate business ethics to corporate brands are either purely conceptual or have been empirically conducted in relation to the field of products/goods. This is surprising because corporate brands are even more relevant in the services sector, due to the different nature of services, and the subsequent need to provide a consistent (...) high-quality customer experience across all the brand–customer interactions and touch-points. Thus, the purpose of this article is to study, at a corporate brand level and in the field of services, the effect of customer perceived ethicality of a brand on brand equity. The model is tested by structural equations, using data collected for eight service categories by means of a panel composed of 2179 customers. The test of measurement equivalence between these categories is conducted using generalizability theory. Confirmatory factor analysis marker technique is applied in order to check for common method variance. The results of the hypothesized model indicate that customer perceived ethicality has a positive, indirect impact on brand equity, through the mediators of brand affect and perceived quality. However, there is no empirical evidence for a direct effect of customer perceived ethicality on brand equity. (shrink)

ResumenEn este artículo se presenta el pensamiento de Hamann en dos aspectos principales. Por una parte, se analiza su relación crítica con el movimiento ilustrado (entendido como discurso dominante en su época) y se destaca su relación con Kant. Por otra parte, se investigan las líneas fundamentales de su concepción del lenguaje, considerada como un núcleo básico de su crítica a la Ilustración. La identificación entre razón y lenguaje permite considerar a Hamann más como un ilustrado radical que como un (...) irracionalista, al tiempo que lo convierte en iniciador de un «giro lingüístico y hermenéutico» en el siglo XVIII.Palabras claveHamann, Ilustración, Filosofía del lenguaje, racionalidadAbstractHamann’s thought is presented in this paper through two main aspects. On the one hand, we analyze his connexion with the Enlightenment –which is understood as the dominant discourse of his time– together with his relationship with Kant. On the other hand, we study the basic trends of his conception of language, considered as a basic nucleus of his critic to Enlightenment. The identification between reason and language makes us consider Hamman a radical man of the Enlightenment rather than an irrationalistic, as well as the founder of a “linguistic and hermeneutic turn” in the 18th century.KeywordsHamann, Enlightenment, Philosophy of language, rationality. (shrink)

In the past few decades, a growth in ethical consumerism has led brands to increasingly develop conscientiousness and depict ethical image at a corporate level. However, most of the research studying business ethics in the field of corporate brand management is either conceptual or has been empirically conducted in relation to goods/products contexts. This is surprising because corporate brands are more relevant in services contexts, because of the distinct nature of services and the key role that employees have in the (...) services sector. Accordingly, this article aims at empirically examining the effects of customer perceived ethicality in the context of corporate services brands. Based on data collected for eight service categories using a panel of 2179 customers, the hypothesized structural model is tested using path analysis. The results show that, in addition to a direct effect, customer perceived ethicality has a positive and indirect effect on customer loyalty, through the mediators of customer affective commitment and customer perceived quality. Further, employee empathy positively influences the impact of customer perceived ethicality on customer affective commitment, and customer loyalty positively impacts customer positive word-of-mouth. The first implication of these results is that corporate brand strategy needs to be aligned with human resources policies and practices if brands want to turn ethical strategies into employee behavior. Second, corporate brands should build more authentic communications grounded in their ethical beliefs and supported by evidence from actual employees. (shrink)

The development of Information and Communication Technologies has favored access to technological resources in adolescents. These tools provide access to information that can promote learning. However, they can also have a negative effect against people, as they can be used with other functionality, in which cyberbullying situations are caused during the interactions that arise when using social networks. The objective of this study was to determine the predictive value of the role of cyberbullying victims based on variables related to other (...) roles involved in cyberbullying and bullying, as well as personal characteristics, contextual characteristics and positive teamwork habits.. Information was collected from 227 students of the educational stages of Primary Education and Secondary Education, aged between 11 and 15 years, in a city with a high index of cultural diversity. The step-by-step technique was used to build the regression model. The results indicate that the model has a good goodness of fit coefficient. The role of cyberbully is the most important predictive variable of the role of the victim in cyberbullying and, to a lesser extent, the role of the witness in cyberbullying, the role of the witness in bullying, and the role of the victim of bullying. The role of the bullying aggressor and the variables sex, age, type of educational center, and teamwork habits are excluded in the predictive model. (shrink)

El objetivo del presente artículo es doble. Por un lado, se pretende defender la tradición retórica que impregna el humanismo cívico en términos de su potencial utilidad con vistas a la educación para la ciudadanía. Por otro lado, mediante un ejercicio de “rational reconstruction” (Richard Rorty) o “rewriting” (Stanley Fish), se propone rastrear el papel de la solidaridad cívica en la Laudatio Florentinae urbis de Leonardo Bruni para realizar una “apropiación” de sus elementos en el contexto de los debates actuales (...) en filosofía política. La metáfora del “florecimiento” de la comunidad política, recurrente en el humanismo cívico, implica siempre una exhortación a la práctica de las virtudes cívicas por parte de los ciudadanos, es decir, una subordinación de los intereses particulares al bien común y, en consecuencia, una base de solidaridad en el cuerpo civil. Para ello, se partirá de la distinción rawlsiana entre “republicanismo clásico” y “humanismo cívico” que se halla en El liberalismo político (V, §7, 5). El argumento por disociación de Rawls será problematizado para sostener que el papel de las virtudes ciudadanas, como virtudes propiamente humanas, debe ser más importante y más exigente que el que el liberalismo le reserva si queremos una sociedad verdaderamente floreciente. (shrink)

Cet article fait une brève synthèse des difficultés de traduction dans le domaine de la santé telles qu'elles ont été mises en évidence dans deux publications du CRTT. Après avoir rapidement défini ce qu'il faut entendre aujourd'hui par mots de la santé, on tente de relever des points communs dans les résultats de la recherche des auteurs concernant les équivalences interlinguistiques dans le domaine de la médecine et la prise en compte des identités culturelles dans le processus de traduction des (...) mots de la santé.This article is a brief summary of translation problems in the field of health as they have been identified in two publications CRTT. After quickly defined what is meant by words today health, attempts to address commonalities in the results of the authors' research on interlingual equivalents in the field of medicine and taking into account cultural identities in the process of translating words health. (shrink)

The concept of assisted death includes a heterogeneous variety of practices, whose common denominator is to guarantee citizens their right to participate in decisions related to their own death process, to make it as consistent with their preferences as possible. It’s one of the most controversial and discussed topics in recent decades, both in the academic field and in public opinion. This paper examines the two main justifications for its legalization: to guarantee individual autonomy as in other areas of life, (...) and to avoid unnecessary suffering to the dying. It will be argued that, although both are related and both tie the ethics of care with the autonomy of the subject, the justification for autonomy is stronger and resists better the objections of those opposed to the legalization of this right. (shrink)

This paper presents some modern and interdisciplinary concepts about creativity and creative processes specially related to problem solving. Central publications related to the theme are briefly reviewed. Creative tools and approaches suitable to support problem solving are also presented. Finally, the paper outlines the author’s experiences using creative tools and approaches to: Facilitation of problem solving processes, strategy development in organisations, design of optimisation systems for large scale and complex logistic systems, and creative design of software optimisation for complex non-linear (...) systems. (shrink)

Few elements of Aristotle’s practical philosophy have been more discussed than the so-called “practical syllogism”. But there are also few as suggestive to the commentators as this one. In this article I intend to define what the theory of practical syllogism would consist in, as a separated element within the Aristotelian ethical theory (or, more precise-ly, within his theory of action). It is not properly a demonstration of the existence of such a theory, but rather of the possibility that it (...) can take its place, even a necessary one, into the Stagirite’s general theory of action, in spite of some difficulties that I try to solve. This conclusion is reached through an analysis of the main elements of this theory. (shrink)

AbstractIn this article, I examine the pedagogical practices of La Red de Semillas Libres de Colombia, a grassroots national organization that works towards the construction of seed sovereignty. Using participant observation and interviews, I show the epistemic, territorial, and gender dimensions of these practices. I draw from extant scholarship on seed struggles, decolonial feminism, and feminist political ecology to analyze two specific practices: experimentation and demonstration and, visual technology creation, including drawings. I demonstrate how these practices organize territories through collective (...) epistemic gendered labor around seeds. These territories are spaces for community-based power creation that have the potential to advance agrarian and environmental agendas from below. However, they also reflect and embody the enduring character of patriarchy and the challenges it presents to achieve systemic transformations in the Colombian countryside. (shrink)

The tensorial relativistic quantum mechanics in (1+1) dimensions is considered. Its kinematical and dynamical features are reviewed as well as the problem of finding the Dirac spinor for given finite multivectors. For stationary states, the dynamical tensorial equations, equivalent to the Dirac equation, are solved for a free particle, for a particle inside a box, and for a particle in a step potential.

Since the 19th century, and despite tremendous progress in science, the topic of 'brain and sex' remains a matter of misleading interpretations, far beyond the field of science. The media are not solely responsible for this situation. Some scientific circles still actively promote the ideology of biological determinism in their attempt to explain differences in behaviour and cognitive abilities between men and women. Experimental data from brain imaging studies, cognitive tests or the discovery of new genes are often distorted to (...) serve deterministic ideas. As biotechnologies and genetic engeneering represent today a new economic and lucrative challenge, the question of what is innate and what is acquired is becoming more and more significant, requiring vigilant scrutiny from us all. (shrink)

If all dependent expressions were adjacent some variety of immediate constituent analysis would suffice for grammar, but syntactic and semantic mismatches are characteristic of natural language; indeed this is a, or the, central problem in grammar. Logical categorial grammar reduces grammar to logic: an expression is well-formed if and only if an associated sequent is a theorem of a categorial logic. The paradigmatic categorial logic is the Lambek calculus, but being a logic of concatenation the Lambek calculus can only capture (...) discontinuous dependencies when they are peripheral. In this paper we present the displacement calculus, which is a logic of intercalation as well as concatenation and which subsumes the Lambek calculus. On the empirical side, we apply the new calculus to discontinuous idioms, quantification, VP ellipsis, medial extraction, pied-piping, appositive relativisation, parentheticals, gapping, comparative subdeletion, cross-serial dependencies, reflexivization, anaphora, dative alternation, and particle shift. On the technical side, we prove that the calculus enjoys Cut-elimination. (shrink)

We prove, by using the concept of schematic interpretation, that the natural embedding from the category ISL, of intuitionistic sentential pretheories and i-congruence classes of morphisms, to the category CSL, of classical sentential pretheories and c-congruence classes of morphisms, has a left adjoint, which is related to the double negation interpretation of Gödel-Gentzen, and a right adjoint, which is related to the Law of Excluded Middle. Moreover, we prove that from the left to the right adjoint there is a pointwise (...) epimorphic natural transformation and that since the two endofunctors at CSL, obtained by adequately composing the aforementioned functors, are naturally isomorphic to the identity functor for CSL, the string of adjunctions constitutes an adjoint cylinder. On the other hand, we show that the operators of Lindenbaum-Tarski of formation of algebras from pretheories can be extended to equivalences of categories from the category CSL, respectively, ISL, to the category Bool, of Boolean algebras, respectively, Heyt, of Heyting algebras. Finally, we prove that the functor of regularization from Heyt to Bool has, in addition to its well-known right adjoint (that is, the canonical embedding of Bool into Heyt) a left adjoint, that from the left to the right adjoint there is a pointwise epimorphic natural transformation, and, finally, that such a string of adjunctions constitutes an adjoint cylinder. (shrink)

Collective memory is neither spontaneous nor random, but the result of a series of selective practices. It establishes group identity and sets power relations between groups. The author considers the process of selection through a case study of the transformation of Franco’s regime in Spain into a democracy. Collective memory of the time is shown to be organized around an event (the Munich Coalition or contubernio) and around the democratic transition. The author traces two opposing notions, negationist (denying any importance (...) to Munich) and the pro-democratic, and concludes that the memory of the transition is only the memory of those who won the civil war, who were also those who engineered the transition itself. (shrink)