Com este trabalho pretende dar-se um panorama do que foi a actividade científica, no domínio da Matemática e das ciências que lhe andavam ligadas (Geografia, Astronomia, Mecânica), no grande centro cultural que foi o Museu e a Biblioteca de Alexandria, nos tempos áureos e até ao declínio definitivo da ciência nesse espaço. Pretende-se igualmente sublinhar as descobertas e progressos que abriram caminho para posteriores estádios de desenvolvimento da Matemática, assim como dar conta do cruzamento de saberes e da grande mobilidade (...) de cientistas matemáticos e relações entre si, alguns provenientes de muitos espaços e sediados em Alexandria, outros formados em Alexandria e regressados ao seu espaço de origem. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the importance of two different peer effects as determinants in the adolescent’s decision whether or not to smoke. One is measured at the class level and the other reflects the smoking behaviour of the adolescent’s best friends. A nationally representative wave of Spanish data, collected in different state and private centres of secondary education and vocational training, and several linear probability models are used to estimate the role of peer effects. We find that a 10 (...) % increase in the proportion of classmates is associated with a 3.6 points increment in the probability of smoking. Similarly, if the smoker’s friends go from “only some” to “the majority”, the probability of smoking increases by 39 points. Although both peer effects are significant if introduced separately, the class peer variable is not significant once the closer peer effect is introduced. Our work provides evidence to support the hypothesis that peer effects are important determinants of smoking among adolescents. This has implications for policy-makers, since the existence of peer effects would amplify the effects of interventions. (shrink)

Localization Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) represent a research topic with increasing interest due to their numerous applications. However, the viability of these systems is compromised by the attained localization uncertainties once implemented, since the network performance is highly dependent on the sensors location. The Node Location Problem (NLP) aims to obtain the optimal distribution of sensors for a particular environment, a problem already categorized as NP-Hard. Furthermore, localization WSN usually perform a sensor selection for determining which nodes are to be (...) utilized for maximizing the achieved accuracy. This problem, defined as the Sensor Selection Problem (SSP), has also been categorized as NP-Hard. While different metaheuristics have been proposed for attaining a near optimal solution in both problems, no approach has considered the two problems simultaneously, thus resulting in suboptimal solutions since the SSP is biased by the actual node distribution once deployed. In this paper, a combined approach of both problems simultaneously is proposed, thus considering the SSP within the NLP. Furthermore, a novel metaheuristic combining the Black Widow Optimization (BWO) algorithm and the Variable Neighbourhood Descent Chains (VND-Chains) local search, denominated as BWO-VND-Chains, is particularly devised for the first time in the author’s best knowledge for the NLP, resulting in a more efficient and robust optimization technique. Finally, a comparison of different metaheuristic algorithms is proposed over an actual urban scenario, considering different sensor selection criteria in order to attain the best methodology and selection technique. Results show that the newly devised algorithm with the SSP criteria optimization achieves mean localization uncertainties up to 19.66 % lower than traditional methodologies. (shrink)

Resumen Este artículo ofrece una lectura de la pintura renacentista según los principios establecidos por Leon Battista Alberti, uno de los primeros teóricos de la perspectiva en cuyo Tratado de pintura se refiere al cuadro como “una ventana abierta a la historia”. El concepto de historia empleado por Alberti, que se presta a numerosas interpretaciones, es abordado a partir de las reflexiones de Erwin Panofsky en torno a la perspectiva como “forma simbólica”, avanzando hacia una hipótesis en torno al carácter (...) simbólico de la configuración y representación del tiempo en el cuadro-ventana albertiano.This paper offers a reading of the renaissance painting according to the principles established by Leon Battista Alberti, one of the first theorists of perspective in painting which Trattato della pittura define the frame of the painting as “an open window into history”. The concept of history employed by Alberti, which lends itself to many interpretations, is approached from the reflections of Erwin Panofsky about the prospect as “symbolic form”, moving towards a hypothesis about the symbolic nature of the configuration and representation of time in the alberti’s window. (shrink)

Resumen Este artículo ofrece una lectura de la pintura renacentista según los principios establecidos por Leon Battista Alberti, uno de los primeros teóricos de la perspectiva en cuyo Tratado de pintura se refiere al cuadro como “una ventana abierta a la historia”. El concepto de historia empleado por Alberti, que se presta a numerosas interpretaciones, es abordado a partir de las reflexiones de Erwin Panofsky en torno a la perspectiva como “forma simbólica”, avanzando hacia una hipótesis en torno al carácter (...) simbólico de la configuración y representación del tiempo en el cuadro-ventana albertiano.This paper offers a reading of the renaissance painting according to the principles established by Leon Battista Alberti, one of the first theorists of perspective in painting which Trattato della pittura define the frame of the painting as “an open window into history”. The concept of history employed by Alberti, which lends itself to many interpretations, is approached from the reflections of Erwin Panofsky about the prospect as “symbolic form”, moving towards a hypothesis about the symbolic nature of the configuration and representation of time in the alberti’s window. (shrink)

En este artículo damos a conocer ciertos documentos que nos aportan nuevos indicios para conocer cuál ha sido la trayectoria seguida por un cuadro atribuido a Zurbarán que perteneció a la Congregación del Oratorio de San Felipe Neri de Sevilla y que, con el tiempo, pasó amanos diferentes. Tal circunstancia nos sirve de pretexto para trazar, bien que someramente, un breve relato acerca de las vicisitudes en las que se vieron inmersos los patrimonios artísticos de los dos templos que sirvieron (...) de marco a las celebraciones religiosas de los oratorianos sevillanos, a saber, la desaparecida iglesia de San Felipe Neri y el templo del antiguo colegio carmelitano de San Alberto. (shrink)

¿El conflicto armado ha transformado los roles de la mujer en Colombia? En este artículo se quiere evaluar la diversidad de escenarios y roles que las mujeres adquirieron durante el conflicto armado en Colombia. Para dirigir el rumbo de esta investigación y la posibilidad de evaluar alguno escenarios de posacuerdo, este texto se propone: realizar una consideración epistemológica por parte del feminismo latinoamericano que tenga en cuenta la pluralidad de relatos violentos en Latinoamérica analizar relatos de mujeres partícipes en la (...) guerra que permitan evaluar el rol de la mujer más allá de su simple victimización; examinar la situación de la mujer dentro de los conflictos bélicos colombianos y presentar cómo se diferencia de las situaciones de guerra ocurridas en Europa. Todos estos puntos permiten evaluar cómo la guerra en Colombia ha sido fundamental para contemplar los roles de las mujeres más allá del de víctima, como, por ejemplo, las mujeres activistas que han participado en la reconciliación y el ejercicio de memoria histórica durante el acuerdo de paz y el posacuerdo. Dicho logro promueve un porvenir del feminismo que abre nuevos espacios de acción para la mujer, los cuales, debido a la limitación de este trabajo, quedan aún por explorar. (shrink)

In this paper we propose that the term skill acquisition, as commonly used in traditional psychology, and the philosophy, education, movement science and performance development literatures, has been biased by an organismic asymmetry. In cognitive and experimental psychology, for example, it refers to the establishment of an internal state or representation of an act which is believed to be acquired as a result of learning and task experience. Here we elucidate an ecological perspective which suggests that the term skill acquisition (...) may not refer to an entity but rather to the emergence of an adaptive, functional relationship between an organism and its environment, thus avoiding an inherent organismic asymmetry in theorizing. In this respect, the terms 'skill adaptation' or 'skill attunement' might be more suitable to describe this process. (shrink)

Este artigo intenta apresentar uma visão panorâmica da complexidade histórica das relações entre sociedade, estado e meio ambiente no Brasil. Argumenta que a genealogia dessas relações evidencia uma trajetória não linear, multifacetada e conflituosa. Há diversas tradições no palco dos confrontos políticos atuais: o Brasil se destaca por uma longa história de destruição, que remonta ao início da colonização do território, mas também por uma fértil tradição de pensamento conservacionista, significativas lutas socioambientais, e pelo pioneirismo nas pautas globais em prol (...) do ambiente. Recuperar e valorizar a complexidade das relações entre sociedade e ambiente pode ser um ato decisivo na construção de caminhos futuros diversos para a questão socioambiental no Brasil, projetando e demonstrando a riqueza e o vigor de diferentes atores e práticas dissonantes. (shrink)

‘I am not data’ has been produced in collaboration with a creative coder from the Netherlands. Over a period of six months around 4600 images were chosen from approximately 20,000 images of LatinX femmes. The images were then fed into a generative adversarial network (GAN) simulation that produced this film. The resulting work seeks to elucidate a process of lumping together foreign bodies as a method of amalgamation that works to create ‘new’ information. It exists in tandem with ‘Second Nature’, (...) a body of work on Mexican femme bodies and algorithmic web searches, from which some images are included in this article. The process behind the GAN used for this film becomes a mere reference to a human shape. Its processes of synthesis work as a metaphor for systems of human classification in which the bodies of foreigners become fuel for monstrous stereotypes. There is a sense of history repeating itself through the ways that these technological tools are used in artificial intelligence (AI) which launches questions regarding equality and progress in pursuit of social justice. (shrink)

This paper presents a new theoretical justification for the Cournot–Bertrand model to arise in equilibrium when firms have, at the outset, the same cost structure and sell symmetrically differentiated products. The Cournot–Bertrand model assumes some firms compete on price, adjusting their production to meet demand, while others set quantities and let their price adjust until market equilibrium is reached. We show that this may occur endogenously due to the possibility of entry, which may be deterred when some of the incumbents (...) decide to set prices, while others free ride on this behavior and choose quantities. (shrink)

O estudo do valor é indissociável da análise dos conceitos de bom e Bem, pelo que qualquer base metodológica que lhe sirva de alicerce tem de partir do exame destes. Assumindo os riscos do sem-sentido, recusamos uma redução relativista do bom predicativo a bom atributivo e de bom a bom para, bom do ponto de vista de, bom relativo a, e avançamos para a discussão de algumas tentativas de identificação do bom, nomeadamente com o prazer, o desejo e o escolhido. (...) Seguindo-se o esforço de mostrar como bom é insusceptível de uma remissão para o psicológico ou para o subjectivo, o ensaio procura evidenciar a ideia de Bem como o conceito fundamental e indefinível para a compreensão do bom, a partir da sua estruturação teleológica. Propomo-nos, portanto, estabelecer bom = aquilo que remete para o Bem, sendo o conceito de valor o reflexo da relação mediada com o Bem, indissociável do domínio ético. Por fim, consagra-se a possibilidade de uma nova fundação de um método na teoria do valor baseado nos preceitos alcançados, distinguindo-se o estudo do valor em analítico, substantivo e prático. The study of value is inseparable from the analysis of the concepts of good and the Good, so any methodological basis which serves as groundwork must take from these. Assuming the risks of non-sensicality, we propose to refuse a relativistic reduction of predicative good to attributive good and of good to good for, good from the point of view of and good-relative-to and discuss some attempts to identify good, particularly with pleasure, desire and choice. Following the effort to show how good is not liable to be ascribed to the psychological or subjective, the essay seeks to highlight the idea of the Good as the fundamental concept - therefore undefinable - to understand good as from its teleological structure. We therefore propose to establish good = what refers to the Good, and the concept of value as one which reflects the mediated relationship with the Good, inseparable from the ethical. Finally, we establish the possibility of a new foundation of a method of the theory of value based in the reached percepts, distinguishing between analytical, substantive and practical inquiries on value. (shrink)

an examination of both the causal theory of action and the agent causalist theory, and a proposal for a third alternative.

Ruben Berrios Queen’s University Belfast Anti-realism and Aesthetic Cognition Abstract At the core of the debate between scientific realism and anti-realism is the question of the relation between scientific theory and the world. The realist possesses a mimetic conception of the relation between theory and reality. For the realist, scientific theories represent reality. The anti-realist, in contrast, seeks to understand the relations between theory and world in non-mimetic terms. We will examine Cartwright’s simulacrum account of explanation in order to illuminate (...) the anti-realist position. Science consists of phenomenological and theoretical laws. The former are concerned with appearances, or those phenomena that can be directly observed; the latter involve the unobservable reality that is alleged to underlie appearances, and are capable only of indirect confirmation. Phenomenological laws are said to be descriptive, whilst theoretical laws are understood as explanatory. Cartwright is concerned with the theoretical. She claims that the standard realist account of the explanatory efficacy of theoretical laws is faulty. The explanatory power of theoretical laws consists in their ability to provide an explanation of physical phenomena. According to Cartwright, the realist claims that laws explain phenomena by providing an abstract description of them, in terms of their micro-structural features, that is alleged to be true. On this view, explanatory power is entirely dependent on descriptive adequacy. As phenomenological laws describe appearances, so theoretical laws describe the fundamental reality that governs appearances. Cartwright rejects the preceding view and in its place proposes a simulacrum account of explanation. According to Cartwright, the explanatory power of theoretical laws is related not to descriptive adequacy, but rather to the construction of adequate models. To explain a phenomenon is to construct a model which best or most adequately accommodates the phenomenon to a theory. The model will consist of various posited objects that serve to explain the phenomena in terms that are consistent with a set of theoretical laws. Cartwright claims that theoretical laws are true of, or describe, the objects of the model. The objects of the model, however, are not descriptive of reality. They are simulacra. They have, that is, the form or appearance of things, without possessing their substance or proper qualities. In light of the foregoing account we can summarise the distinction between scientific realism and anti-realism as follows. The realist claims that theoretical laws literally represent real objects. The anti-realist claims that laws represent objects of a model that are simulacra of reality. Anti-realism has an aesthetic dimension. The movement from realism to anti-realism is also the movement from the mimetic conception of the scientist as holding a mirror to nature to the constructionist view of the scientist as engaging with nature through invention. There is a lot of the artist in the anti-realist’s view of the scientist. This is true for Cartwright as well as, for example, Van Fraassen in his doctrine of constructive empiricism. It would appear, then, that the philosophy of science has absorbed some concepts that are ordinarily housed in aesthetics. And it has done so profitably. The aim of this paper is to reverse the direction of disciplinary influence. Can art, in relation to its status as a cognitive enterprise, be illuminated by scientific anti-realism? I will argue that it can. In an unexpected reference to the Nicomachean Ethics, Cartwright draws a suggestive parallel between theoretical laws and general moral principles, on the one hand, and physical phenomena and everyday moral conduct, on the other hand. If we add to this the claim that a central component of art’s value is cognitive, then we have the basic materials with which to flesh out a broadly anti-realist view of art. In the production of art, artists can construct models that mediate between everyday ethical phenomena and general ethical tendencies. These models reveal the ways in which there are implicit consistencies or inconsistencies, conflicts or congruences and so forth, between the phenomena and the tendencies. On this basis art can contribute to the reflective understanding of ethical life. This constitutes to a large degree art’s status as a cognitive enterprise. To apprehend art cognitively as artist or critic is to engage in aesthetic cognition. (shrink)

Chile has established hybrid policies for the administrative distribution of its educational establishments, leading to significant gaps in educational results and school conditions between public, mixed, and private schools. As a result, there are high levels of segregation, and social and economic vulnerability that put public schools at a disadvantage, affecting their image and causing a constant decrease in enrollment. An abbreviated version of Luhtanen and Crocker’s collective self-esteem scale was adapted and validated for the Chilean educational context because of (...) its usefulness in studying processes of social segregation and cultural coherence, seeking to identify student perception about the appreciation of school actions in the context of belonging and identification with schools, in order to compare between groups according to types of establishment and assess the effects of school conditions on the perception of students. A representative sample of Chilean secondary students between 9th and 12th grades participated. Descriptive analyses, comparison of means between groups, confirmatory factorial analyses, and multi-group analyses were conducted to test the adjustment and invariance of the unifactorial structure of a reduced version of four items. The results indicated that the scale satisfactorily complies with the proposed adjustment indexes, presents total invariance by gender and partial invariance by administrative dependence, and allows establishing statistically significant differences in the collective self-esteem, indicating a higher score for students in the private system, and a lower score for those in the public system. These results show the negative effects of high school segregation on students’ collective self-esteem, affecting the appreciation of personal, collective, and institutional activities and the sense of belonging. Although previous research has explored some of the effects of school segregation, the present study focuses on collective self-esteem, which is closely related to identity and belonging, and allows for further innovative research on school segregation. The scale is useful as an instrument for researching social conditions of student well-being, in regards to educational management. (shrink)

Nowadays, that part of Amazonia which is situated on Brazilian territory is more and more the focus of attention for communication methods and the international agenda. This enormous expanse of land covered by tropical forest of unequalled beauty, extending over several Brazilian states, possesses an extremely rich biodiversity, with a vast potential reserve of natural resources of all sorts, and inspires admiration as well as inevitable greed. The intensification of human activity in the region has given rise to problems such (...) as deforestation and a resulting loss of organic matter whose importance has yet to be properly evaluated; it has also led to conflict between the different local groups, such as the indigenous population, gold prospectors and the big landowners, and to the degradation of quite extensive areas, thus provoking questions on how best to promote sustained development in the region. (shrink)

This paper argues that Spinoza held substances other than God to be inconceivable. It uses this claim to develop a novel response to the Problem of Other Substances, the problem of explaining why some of Spinoza’s proofs for God’s existence cannot be used to prove the existence of a non-divine substance instead.

The link between leadership and mental health at the workplace is well established by prior research. However, most of the studies have addressed this relationship from a single-source perspective. The aim of this study was to examine how supervisor and employee ratings of health-oriented leadership correspond to each other and which sources are predictive for employee mental health. We assessed data within 99 teams containing 713 employees in 11 different companies in Southern Germany. Supervisors and their staff completed questionnaires on (...) the supervisors’ health-oriented staff-care dimensions awareness, value of health and health behavior and current mental distress. Hierarchical linear models revealed that supervisors’ self-ratings were significantly related to their employees’ ratings only on the health behavior dimension, but not on the health awareness and value of health dimensions. Also, supervisors rated themselves significantly higher on HoL compared to their employees. Employee ratings of HoL significantly predicted their own level of mental distress, whereas supervisor ratings of HoL did not predict employees’ mental distress at the team level. Supervisors’ self-ratings of HoL did not influence the relationship between employee ratings of HoL and their mental distress on an individual level. These results highlight the complex relationship between multisource assessments of HoL and employee mental health, emphasizing the importance of subjective perception for mental health. Future studies should investigate under which conditions supervisor and employee ratings correspond to each other and are predictive for mental health at the workplace. (shrink)

Moral Constraints on War offers a principle-by-principle presentation of the transcultural roots of the ethics of war in an age defined by the increasingly international nature of military intervention.

O presente trabalho procura se debruçar sobre a dimensão ontológica do homem animal-político-social em Aristóteles. Logo, desde já nos cabe ressaltar que a verificação do homem enquanto animal político-social abarcará um caráter metafísico para a efetivação no e do físico-material-natural, ou seja, o ser biopsicossocial. Refletindo, construindo e interligando o ser físico e “espiritual”. Portanto, o objeto principal será o que diz respeito ao homem como um animal político-social, no sentido ontológico do ser sensível em Aristóteles. Para tanto, a proposta (...) abarcará a Teoria das Quatro Causas de Aristóteles. Isso para demonstrar certa ontologia de uma suposta essência da ou na substancia no e do ser humano. Ou seja, quem é o “homem-ser-ente” coberto por sua estrutura física e sensível no sentido ontológico no corporal? São os seres humanos animais essencialmente políticos? E se forem são seres políticos do e ou no “espiritual”, “almático” e metafísico ou no físico-corporal? (shrink)

O esquecimento é uma experiência incómoda da quotidianeidade. Marca de temporalidade e de finitude, tem carácter ontológico e alcance ôntico. Manifesta o caminho da verdade do ser à maneira humana e do ser no mundo de tudo quanto há. Heidegger define esse caminho ontológico incontornável como sendo o da metafísica ocidental, hoje culminante na época da técnica. Mas, numa abordagem meta-ontológica, o fenómeno ontológico de poder esquecer constitui uma possibilidade para o existir de cada um, enquanto projecto. O não-esquecimento compulsivo-obsessivo (...) inibe o a-vir, reduzindo-o a interpretações sedimentadas, pre-determinadas por situações hermenêuticas do sido, congeladas num não-passado. A presente abordagem pretende considerar esta duplicidade do possível e do não-possível, radicada no olvido e na abertura afectiva, ao encontro e ao seu novum, assim habilitado. Para tal, parte de um quadro de Klee e de uma narrativa de Borges, para orientar a leitura de textos de Heidegger, desde 1927 a 1945. (shrink)

Most of the features of modern Russian business are transient, determined by the transitional character of the Russian economy and drastic changes in the social structure, ideology, and consciousness of Russian society in general. There are three main normative experiences in the traditions of Russian business: a) the experience of pre-Revolutionary business, specifically developed and practiced by the merchants of the old-believers extraction; b) the experience of socialist economy, which was more or less oriented to the public good and presupposed (...) selfless aspirations by the economic agents; c) the experience of legally and administratively constrained private business and illegal shadow business, which expected businessmen to be vigorous, industrious and enterprising. The process of privatization was developed under the aegis of state, specifically the state bureaucracy. The influence of changes in the social-economic system has been ambivalent for social morals. However, the reforms could stimulate their improvement. The recent development in the cultural environment of business testify to the emerging space of civilized business, which manifests that it is practically useful for businessmen to be ethical. (shrink)

Partindo do debate de Paris, com Derrida, que se defende ter tido uma importante repercussão no caminho de Gadamer, pretende aclarar-se a noção de boa vontade. Tardiamente surgida e não isenta de certa imprecisão, que se detecta no debate em que ganha relevo, está ausente de Verdade e Método e só chega a explicitar-se posteriormente em relação com a solidaridade. O presente trabalho procura mostrar que antes do conteúdo ético, que chega a assumir, tem inicialmente um sentido pré-ético, que o (...) aproxima do conceito hermenêutico de abertura da compreensão. Finalmente, fenomenologicamente considerado, defende-se que tem a sua raiz na empatia. (shrink)

Researchers have studied the athletes' dual careers with the aim of helping them to combine the sport and the academic–vocational sphere. Most of this research has addressed the study–sport combination, but there is a lack of studies on the work–sport combination. The main objective of this research was to explore the subjective perceptions of Spanish elite athletes when attempting to combine their careers as professional athletes with a second profession or trade. Further, this study aims to identify the access to (...) facilitating resources and the perception of obstacles and barriers to the development of a dual career. A qualitative approach was chosen to address these research questions. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was carried out on a sample of 18 elite athletes, and the data were collected using semi-structured interviews based on a set of superordinate and subordinate categories. The results showed that the athletes interviewed possessed valuable resources such as the transference of sports values to the work sphere. However, important barriers were highlighted such as the perception of sport institutions as absent entities in the work–sport combination. Thus, the study of this type of dual career seems to be one of the challenges facing the interested scientific community for the coming years. (shrink)

The U.S. government embraces the concepts of privatization and market competition, but the realm of contracting shows that it has not always been able to put its principles into practice. Although the contracting system is supposed to be open and competitive, in recent years the government has often awarded contracts with little or no competitive bidding, has chosen to award mostly cost-plus type contracts that force the government to assume more of the risk, and lacked efficiency in monitoring and overseeing (...) private contractors. While the number and value of contracts have increased, the workforce to oversee these contracts has been reduced, preventing the government from adequately enforcing compliance with the contractors, and the government has not made use of past performance evaluations in its contracting system. Private contractors that do business with the U.S. government are for the most part well-established firms with ample resources and inside contacts; many contracts are still being awarded on preferential treatment and to the larger and well-established contractors. (shrink)

The work of Arnout Geulincx (1624?1669), a Flemish Cartesian that developed a highly curious ?parallelistic? view on the universe, shows striking prima facie resemblances to Stoicism. Should we label Geulincx a reinventor of Stoic tenets, albeit within a strict Cartesian theoretical framework? To answer this question, my contribution begins by discussing relevant aspects of Stoicism and by introducing the ?existential? philosophy of Geulincx, whose metaphysical views on man brought him to adopt an ethics based upon absolute obedience and humility. It (...) will discuss Geulincx's own views on the Stoics and, finally, compare Geulincx's philosophy with the Stoic world view. The main argument will be that, despite a deep affinity and many parallels, one crucial difference remains, as the dualism any true Cartesian metaphysics implies has important consequences for Geulincx's ethics in general and for his view on man in particular. As we will see, man plays a very peculiar role in the cosmic drama that we call the ?universe? (shrink)

Free will, before being an object of beliefs or theories susceptible of verification, is the omnipresent supposition of our conscious life. This paper claims that this omnipresence, even though it is not enough to validate theoretically free will, entails two significant consequences. First, that free will is the essential presumption of our actions, without which they would become incomprehensible. Second, that all denial of this – a rational action in itself – presupposes that which is denied.

Gemins 2–8 and Unr‐interacting protein (UNRIP) are intimate partners of the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein, which is the determining factor for the neuromuscular disorder spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). The most documented role of SMN, Gemins and UNRIP occurs within the large macromolecular SMN complex and involves the cytoplasmic assembly of spliceosomal uridine‐rich small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (UsnRNPs), a housekeeping process critical in all cells. Several reports detailing alternative functions for SMN in either motor neurons or skeletal muscles may, however, hold (...) the answer to the extreme neuromuscular tissue specificity observed in SMA. Recent discoveries indicate that collaboration between SMN and Gemins also extends to these non‐canonical functions, hence raising the possibility that mutations in Gemin genes may be the cause of unlinked neuromuscular hereditary syndromes. This review evaluates the functions of Gemins and UNRIP inside the SMN complex and discusses whether these less notorious SMN complex members are capable of acting independently of SMN. (shrink)