La biotecnología ha originado inestimables avances para la salud de la población cubana. Su gran impacto incide en los indicadores de salud de la población, en la actualidad sus productos se extienden a varias naciones con lo cual se ha establecido como un importante renglón de exportación. En consecuencia, fundamentar la repercusión de los logros de la biotecnología para la Salud Pública cubana constituye el objetivo principal de este artículo. Biotechnology is a scientific activity which has reported noticeable successes to (...) Cuban Public Health. Nowadays, the biotechnological productions tribute more than 160 products for the health sector and their commercialization extend for many nations worldwide, thus it has become a mayor exportation goal. However, it greatest impact has been in the indicators of the population´s health. Consequently, to describe the repercussion of the major biotechnological achievements for the Cuban Public Health is the main purpose of this article. (shrink)

The thesis that in social sciences causal explanations are possible only in terms o mechanisms due to the lack of genuine laws has been increasingly popular among social scientist and philosophers. In this article it is examined whether the explanation by mechanism is necessarily an explanation without laws or, on the contrary, it can involve some kind o laws. To this end it is argued, firstly, that mechanisms are not always the antonym of law insofar as they express propensities and (...) so tendencies; secondly, that these tendencies ar causal and entail capacities and dispositions; thirdly, that capacities and dispositions involve in human behaviour have to face the problem of free will; and finally, reasons are offered i favor of considering causal tendencies as authentic laws. The ultimate aim of this article is to demonstrate that explanation of social facts can involve well-established laws in its explanans although they are not universal laws. (shrink)

This article explores whether and how the biotechnologization process that the fuel-plant Jatropha curcas is undergoing might strengthen local sustainable development. It focuses on the ongoing efforts of the multi-stakeholder network Gota Verde to harness Jatropha within local small-scale production systems in Yoro, Honduras. It also looks at the genomics research on Jatropha conducted by the Dutch research institute Plant Research International, specifically addressing the ways in which that research can assists local development in Honduras. A territorial approach is applied (...) for analysis employing a three domain concept (local sustainable biotechnological development) of territory, technology and re-territorialization. The article suggests that, although the biotechnologization process (through genomics) of Jatropha within the socio-technical framework of the institute and multi-stakeholder networks is an ongoing process––and different trajectories are, therefore, still open––the process can, nevertheless, strengthen local sustainable development. (shrink)

Resumen Este artículo busca analizar y hacer una lectura de la identidad, misión, ubicación y aporte que la parroquia ha venido realizando y tejiendo en relación con el contexto urbano. Al mismo tiempo desea comprender cómo ha incidido dicho fenómeno en el modo en el que la parroquia se ve y se lee, como también la manera en que se evidencian sus exigencias y los retos en tal contexto. Es de gran relevancia la pregunta sobre la identidad y la misión (...) de la parroquia en la ciudad, ya que parecería muchas veces diluirse entre tantas propuestas y dinámicas que ofrece la ciudad y los desafíos que le ofrece el ser humano-urbano y el nuevo estilo de congregante. Por ello urge redescubrir su sentido más profundo, ya que, si la parroquia no tiene una clara identidad en medio de la ciudad, corre el riesgo de permanecer en su autorreferencialidad, perdiendo su dinamismo misionero.This article seeks to analyze and read the identity, mission, location and contribution that the parish has been making and weaving in relation to the urban context, at the same time understanding how this phenomenon has affected the way in which it is seen and it is read, as well, to show what their demands and challenges are in this context. The question about the identity and mission of the parish in the city is of great relevance, since it would seem many times to be diluted between so many proposals and dynamics that the city offers and the challenges that the human-urban being offers and the new style of congregant. For this reason, it is urgent to rediscover its deepest meaning, since if the parish does not have a clear identity in the middle of the city, it runs the risk of remaining in its self-referentiality, losing its missionary dynamism. (shrink)

What do we quantify when we attempt to quantify semiotic systems and theories? How sound are potential quantifications in terms of interpretive values within some varieties of semiotic theory? We will make a distinction between formalization and quantification in order to understand what to quantify, how to quantify it and why quantification may be a desirable outcome for semiotic theory. The implications of this stance may be relevant and philosophically interesting in light of the naturalized project of biosemiotics. In this (...) paper we will try to understand some ideas behind the rationale of formalizing and quantifying semiotic phenomena and discuss whether this possibility can or should map to functionalized descriptions of semiosis and the sign. (shrink)

In this paper, a few examples of the critical reception of Hans Jonas' ideas are presented and discussed. It is emphasized that Jonas' ethical position it is not a naïve or utopian proposal, but realistic and aware of its limitations. Some critics forget that the Jonasian "principle of responsibility" is linked to a recovery of the free organism as the center of ethical reflection.

IntroductionThe aim of the present study is to carry out a multidimensional analysis on the relation between satisfaction with social support received, resilience and optimism in cancer patients and their quality of life.Materials and MethodsData were gathered through questionnaires fulfilled by 142 cancer patients. Data relate to sociodemographic, health, quality of life, social support, resilience and optimism.ResultsSatisfaction with the sources and types of support, resilience and optimism relates positively with quality of life. Predictive models show that informational support from friends (...) is the variable that most increases patients’ general health, while emotional support from the partner is the one that best improves how patients cope with the disease. In the same line, emotional support from the partner, together with informational support from family are the ones that most contribute to reduce patients’ symptoms. Resilience improves general health and functioning, and reduces symptoms. Patients’ optimism and resilience also reduce symptoms. Gender differences were found, with females showing lower quality of life than males, mainly in how they cope with cancer. Patients in the stage of treatment showed lower quality of life and higher symptoms. Such increase was observed in patients who received hormonotherapy or chemotherapy.DiscussionImportant practical implications can be drawn from results, which could help improve cancer patients’ quality of life through intervention strategies aimed at increasing their resilience, optimism and the social support provided by their closer sources. (shrink)

En este articulo se examina la tradicional caracterización de la filosofía de la ciencia como una disciplina normativa. Se discuten varias concepciones de esta disciplina, cada una de las cuales ofrece una respuesta diferente a la pregunta de si es posible, y cómo, una filosofía de la ciencia genuinamente normativa. De entre esas concepciones, se opta por una forma de naturalismo que se diferencia de otras en la exigeneia de que la normatividad de la filosofía de la ciencia inc!uya la (...) discusión de los objetivos y valores, epistémicos o no, de la ciencia. La necesidad de esta inc!usión se ilustra, finalmente, con el ejemplo de la aetividad conocida como “cicncia reguladora”.This article examines the traditional characterization of the philosophy of science as a normative discipline. Several understandings of this discipline are discussed; each of them offering a different answer to the question whether, and how, a genuinely normative philosophy of science might be possible. Among these views, I choose one variety of naturalism that differs from others in its commitment with the discussion of science’s aims and values, either epistemic or non-epistemic. Finally, the need for this inclusion is illustrated with the example of the so-called “regulatory science”. (shrink)

Los textos recopilados aquí nos invitan a explorar los múltiples laberintos que plantea la polifórmica noción de responsabilidad, una categoría que se ha vuelto central e imprescindible en nuestro horizonte actual. Ciertamente, se impone introducirnos y avanzar por los vericuetos, a veces pobremente iluminados, de los complejos laberintos de la responsabilidad: el incremento de la desigualdad fruto de la globalización económica, la guerra de Irak y sus funestos corolarios, catástrofes ecológicas como la del Prestige o el cambio climático, los vertiginosos (...) avances de la biotecnología, el desolador y trágico atentado del 11 de marzo, plantean graves interrogantes respecto al valor de la responsabilidad en el mundo actual dado que unas decisiones políticas y técnicas imprudentes, precipitadas, conllevan espirales de violencia, horror y devastación que nos estremecen. Todo ello nos exige, imperiosamente, replantear el significado y alcance de la noción de responsabilidad desde la reflexión ética, desde la filosofía social y política e igualmente desde la filosofía de la ciencia y la tecnología. (shrink)

A general consensus has been reached in health care organizations that the disclosure of medical errors can be a very powerful way to improve patients and physicians well-being and serves as a core component to high quality health care. This practice strongly encourages transparent communication with patients after medical errors or unanticipated outcomes. However, many countries, such as Brazil, do not have a culture of disclosing harmful errors to patients or standards emphasizing the importance of disclosing, taking responsibility, apologizing, and (...) discussing the prevention of recurrences. Medical error is not discussed or approached during medical school. The stigma of error has a strong connection with value judgments, and emotional support for physicians does not exist. This paper suggests that open communication with the patient is essential. Guidance about error disclosure from health care organizations would be helpful for quality and patient safety and for health care professionals in countries like Brazil. (shrink)

Elaboramos una versión del disposicionalismo experimental que esclarece la relación entre capacidades y leyes fenomenológicas. Tras algunas consideraciones introductorias, presentamos el disposicionalismo experimental en vistas de las nociones de modalidad física y ambiente de estímulo. Trazamos las líneas generales para una epistemología experimentalista de las capacidades y esclarecemos la modalidad física e invariancia de las leyes fenomenológicas. Luego examinamos las generalizaciones físicas y extrapolaciones de las leyes fenomenológicas y exponemos el caso de la ley de Fresnel, que ilustra aspectos de (...) nuestro argumento. Concluimos con algunas consideraciones sobre los límites del disposicionalismo experimental. (shrink)

El objetivo de este trabajo es realizar una crítica al concepto hegemónico-dominante de ciencia a través de un análisis de la construcción discursiva del paradigma de la simplificación heredado de la Modernidad. Se problematizan las exclusiones político-epistemológicas de la tradición del pensamien..

I would like to locate the thought-provoking ideas advanced by Lane’s Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Idea of the Political within the context of contemporary intellectual legal philosophy and constitu...

Exploramos las tensiones entre narración y materia en la obra de David Lynch. Partiendo de algunas investigaciones recientes -especialmente los trabajos de Català Domènech y Pacôme Thiellement-, proponemos una aproximación al problema de la materia lyncheana que tome como metodología el análisis formal del discurso. Comenzaremos preguntándonos por el uso mismo de la materia que el director aplica en sus creaciones en relación con el aura benjaminiana. En segundo lugar, propondremos un recorrido cronológico que nos permita explorar cómo ha sido (...) la evolución en su manejo de los materiales a partir de tres posibles etapas: el aprendizaje de los códigos artísticos pretéritos -tanto en lo que toca a la herencia de las bellas artes como al reciente pasado cinematográfico-, la paulatina quiebra de los mismos mediante el recurso del video digital o la cita postmoderna, y finalmente, el replanteamiento de sus propias imágenes en un contexto postdigital. (shrink)

Two methodological claims in Hart's TheConceptofLaw have produced perplexity: that it is a book on 1 and that it may also be regarded as an essay in 2 Are these two ideas reconcilable? We know that mere analysis of our legal concepts cannot tell us much about their properties, that is, about the empirical aspect of law. We have learned this from philosophical criticisms of conceptual analysis; yet Hart informs us that analytic jurisprudence can be reconciled with descriptive sociology. The (...) answer to this puzzle lies in the notion of nonambitious conceptual analysis. The theorist analyzes concepts but accepts the limitations of conceptual analysis and therefore uses empirical knowledge and substantive arguments to explain, refine, or perhaps refute initial insights provided by intuitions. This is the conclusion that this paper arrives at as an argumentative strategy to defend Hart's legal theory from the criticisms of Stavropoulos and Dworkin. The latter argues that Hart's legal theory cannot explain theoretical disagreements in law because he relies on a shared criterial semantics. Stavropoulos aims to show that Hart's semantics is committed to ambitious conceptual analysis and relies on the usage of our words as a standard of correctness. Both attacks aim to show that the semantic sting stings Hart's legal theory. This essay refines both challenges and concludes that not even in the light of the most charitable interpretation of these criticisms is Hart's legal theory stung by the semantic sting. This study defends the view that Hart's methodological claims were modest and that he was aware of the limits of conceptual analysis as a philosophical method. He was, this study claims, far ahead of his time. (shrink)

The purpose of the paper is to cast doubt on the alleged intuitive or natural character of the skeptical argument about the external world. In §1, we examine a version of the skeptical argument based on the epistemic closure principle and the indifference principle. In §2, in order to deepen the view defended by Michael Williams, we offer a novel examination of the Cartesian skeptical argumentation to show that it is clear that the alleged naturalness claimed by the skeptic is (...) nowhere to be found in two arguments which can be found in such argumentative strategy; moreover, to reach her conclusion, the skeptic needs to commit to epistemological realism, namely, the claim that each of our beliefs belongs to an epistemological hierarchy based solely on its content. In §3, based on arguments inspired by Wittgenstein, contra epistemological realism, we show how each belief has a justificatory role based on its context. (shrink)

The objective of this paper is to discuss the nature of nonconceptual, as opposed to conceptual, states and their content, by exploring the suggestion that the distinction between the conceptual and the nonconceptual be mapped onto the distinction between the linguistic and the nonlinguistic. This approach gives special relevance to our intuitions about the cognitive relationship between small children and adults, especially regarding the acquisition of concepts, in the course of normal cognitive development. Assuming that there is a developmental challenge (...) to be met, the paper considers both the conceptualist and nonconceptualist strategies used to meet it; and concludes that conceptualism is a more satisfying option. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to analyze the treatment/enhancement distinction as employed by those against using the newest biomedical technologies for purposes other than those strictly curative. First, we analyze the most common definitions related to treatment, such as health, disease or medicine, showing their limitations and problems. Secondly, we consider three different tasks usually assigned to the treatment/enhancement distinction: 1) to establish what we owe to others, 2) to establish what should be included as part of a medical (...) insurance system and 3) to distinguish the morally permissible from the morally impermissible. We conclude that the treatment/enhancement distinction is a useful, if limited, tool for the first two tasks, but an inadequate one for the third. (shrink)

Artículos Ciudadanía y sociedad civil en las democracias contemporáneas. Citizenship and civil society in contemporary democracies. de La Vega, Marta El poder simbólico de los medios de comunicación.The transformations of the political in the field of the symbolic.González Broquen, Ximena La rutinizacion de la indiferencia ética y el aplanamiento de los valores en la Argentina actual. Ethical indifference routine and smoothing moral in contemporary Argentine. Meabe, Joaquín E. Jürgen Habermas: entre la ética del discurso y la ética de la especie. (...) Jürgen Habermas: between the ethics of discourse and the ethics of the species. Moreno Lax, Alejandro Derechos humanos y proceso justo.Human rights and rightful process. Ramos Pascua, José Antonio El Fedón o la trascendencia del alma.Phaedo or the inmortality of the soul. Robledo Rodriguez, Alejandro La enseñanza del derecho en los países de derecho escrito.Legal education in civil law systems. Rodríguez Ferrara, Mauricio De cómo los latinoamericanos percibimos la pena de muerte. How latin-americans view the death penalti. Rodríguez Ferrara, Mauricio La doctrina platónica del alma en el 'Timeo'.The platonic doctrine of soul in 'Thimaeus'. Suzzarini, Andrés Interdisciplinares Bajo los murmullos: tributo a Juan Rulfo. Under the whispers: a homage to Juan Rulfo. Camacho Crispín, Marco Antonio Recensiones Semblanza del jurista venezolano Tulio Chiossone. Belandria, Margarita Informaciones Índice acumulado. (shrink)

We show that the full set of Fierz identities which are used to compute electro-weak interactions reported by Y. Takahashi can be considered as particular cases of the Clifford product between multivector Cartan maps. Moreover, we think that our approach can be generalized to higher-dimensional models.We discuss the factorization and inversion theorems for the recovery of the spinor from its multivectorial Cartan map.A new classification given by P. Lounesto is applied to the recovered spinors for Cl1,3 space-time symmetry and SU(2)×U(1) (...) isotopic group. (shrink)

We look at the relationship of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and country risk. We conceptualize the relationship first by asking if there is a correlationand then positing the directionality of the relationship. We posit that there is an inverse or negative correlation of implicit CSR with country risk and a positive correlation between explicit CSR and country risk. Understanding this relationship can help firms respond to a variety of external pressures such as those from activist organizations and stockholder disciplining; thus, (...) preventing firms from the need to “bolt” on CSR strategies to existing corporate strategies, as well as to help fulfill social needs within the community, mitigate political risks, and improve firm reputation. (shrink)