The study, design and development of a low-cost digital braille printer is boarded with a transdisciplinary approach. The main challenge was focused on reducing significantly the high cost of this type of printers and their printing services. This context is aggravated with the low commercialization of these products in the country, a factor that makes the access of these tools -that are essential to much of the low and middle sectors of the Argentine social structure- even more difficult. An interdisciplinary (...) group of teachers, graduates and students of the careers of industrial design and informatics degree from the National University of La Plata, developed the design and prototype of a braille printer. The work was carried out according to the principles of Gandhian Engineering, based on the reuse of ink-jet printers. The project consists of the design, development and generation of a low-cost Braille printer, produced locally, which prioritizes the use of nationally manufactured components for assembly. To achieve this, an electronic and electromechanical system was designed and manufactured to adapt any Inkjet printer to the objectives of the project, enabling the recycling of obsolete printers. This means, it is proposed to resolve through the use of text printers, applying technical knowledge of computer science and industrial design, to adapt the technological components to the Braille lexicon printer. They also developed, on the one hand, software that controls the printer and allows its use in a simple and accessible way. On the other hand, the hardware and external components were adapted with 3D printing technology and thermoforming, producing a housing that contains the entire printer. Finally, a systematization of the assembly process of the printer prototype was carried out, making it possible to replicate it. Using methodologies of Gandhian Design, a prototype and two alternative proposals of carcasses were obtained. The main objective, which guided this work, was that blind people can access low-cost braille printers promoting by this a favorable impact on the cultural development of their daily lives. (shrink)

BackgroundInformation and communication technology solutions have the potential to support active and healthy aging and improve monitoring and treatment outcomes. To make such solutions acceptable, all stakeholders must be involved in the requirements elicitation process. Due to the COVID-19 situation, alternative approaches to commonly used face-to-face methods must often be used. One aim of the current article is to share a unique experience from the Pharaon project where due to the COVID-19 outbreak alternative elicitation methods were used. In addition, an (...) overview of common functional, quality, and emotional goals identified by six pilot sites is presented to complement the knowledge about the needs of older adults.MethodsOriginally planned face-to-face co-creation seminars were impossible to carry out, and all pilot sites chose alternative requirements elicitation methods that were most suitable in their situation. The elicited requirements were presented in the form of goal models. In one summary goal model, we provide an overview of common functional, quality, and emotional goals.ResultsDifferent elicitation methods were combined based on the digital literacy of the target group and their access to digital tools. Methods applied without digital technologies were phone interviews, reviews of literature and previous projects, while by means of digital technologies online interviews, online questionnaires, and virtual co-creation seminars were conducted. The combination of the methods allowed to involve all planned stakeholders. Virtual and semi-virtual co-creation seminars created collaborative environment comparable to face-to-face situations, while online participation helped to save the time of the participants. The most prevalent functional goals elicited were “Monitor health,” “Receive advice,” “Receive information.” “Easy to use/comfortable,” “personalized/tailored,” “automatic/smart” were identified as most prevalent quality goals. Most frequently occurring emotional goals were “involved,” “empowered,” and “informed.”ConclusionThere are alternative methods to face-to-face co-creation seminars, which effectively involve older adults and other stakeholders in the requirements elicitation process. Despite the used elicitation method, the requirements can be easily transformed into goal models to present the results in a uniform way. The common requirements across different pilots provided a strong foundation for representing detailed requirements and input for further software development processes. (shrink)

Although it has been shown that immersive virtual reality can be used to induce illusions of ownership over a virtual body , information on whether this changes implicit interpersonal attitudes is meager. Here we demonstrate that embodiment of light-skinned participants in a dark-skinned VB significantly reduced implicit racial bias against dark-skinned people, in contrast to embodiment in light-skinned, purple-skinned or with no VB. 60 females participated in this between-groups experiment, with a VB substituting their own, with full-body visuomotor synchrony, reflected (...) also in a virtual mirror. A racial Implicit Association Test was administered at least three days prior to the experiment, and immediately after the IVR exposure. The change from pre- to post-experience IAT scores suggests that the dark-skinned embodied condition decreased implicit racial bias more than the other conditions. Thus, embodiment may change negative interpersonal attitudes and thus represent a powerful tool for exploring such fundamental psychological and societal phenomena. (shrink)

This paper examines the effectiveness of public enforcement by studying the effects of regulatory intervention to curb tunneling through intercorporate loans in China. Specifically, we explore whether public enforcement efforts in 2006 resulted in less tunneling, and ultimately in increased performance for tunneling firms. We show that tunneling is among the dominant factors increasing the likelihood of becoming blacklisted. We also find that firms’ tunneling mechanisms decreased significantly after the regulatory shock, and that their performance increased significantly compared to non-tunneling (...) firms after the regulatory shock. Finally, we find a positive market reaction to the public announcement of tunneling both for firms that have been blacklisted and other tunneling firms that are not blacklisted. Collectively, these results suggest that public enforcement in the presence of a credible threat succeeds in deterring the effect on tunneling behavior in China. (shrink)

Aggregating snippets from the semantic memories of many individuals may not yield a good map of an individual’s semantic memory. The authors analyze the structure of semantic networks that they sampled from individuals through a new snowball sampling paradigm during approximately 6 weeks of 1-hr daily sessions. The semantic networks of individuals have a small-world structure with short distances between words and high clustering. The distribution of links follows a power law truncated by an exponential cutoff, meaning that most words (...) are poorly connected and a minority of words has a high, although bounded, number of connections. Existing aggregate networks mirror the individual link distributions, and so they are not scale-free, as has been previously assumed; still, there are properties of individual structure that the aggregate networks do not reflect. A simulation of the new sampling process suggests that it can uncover the true structure of an individual’s semantic memory. (shrink)

Paper responding to critique of Maurin (2002) presented by Herbert Hochberg in his “Relations, Properties and Particulars” (2004).

This study investigates the relationship between personality traits and coping styles among college students in private higher educational institution. Hence, employing correlational design to assess the relationship between coping styles and personality of 150 college students. The statistical analysis reveals that the r coefficient of 0.54 indicates a moderate positive correlation between the variables. The p-value of 0.00, which is less than 0.05, leads to the decision to reject the null hypothesis. Hence, a significant relationship exists between coping style and (...) personality traits among fourth-year college students in a private state university. (shrink)

Introducción: El dormir mal podría ser la causa de hipertensión arterial y de otras enfermedades crónicas no transmisibles.Objetivo: Conocer la calidad de sueño de las personas con hipertensión arterial.Metodología: Se realizo un estudio descriptivo, se aplico el cuestionario de Índice de Calidad de Sueño de Pittsburgh.Resultados: Se evaluó la calidad de sueño en 85 personas con hipertensión arterial, de abril a diciembre del 2021. El 84% tiene un índice de mala y muy mala calidad de sueño.Conclusión: Las personas con hipertensión (...) con mala y muy mala calidad de sueño puede afectar sus cifras de tensión arterial. (shrink)

Stakeholder engagement and dialogue have a central role in defining the relations between organisations and their internal and external interlocutors. Drawing upon the analysis of dialogic motifs, power–conflict dynamics and sociopolitical perspectives, and based on a set of interviews with the stakeholders of a consumer-owned cooperative, the research explores the dialogic potential of stakeholder engagement. The analysis revealed a fragmented picture where the co-design and co-implementation aspects were mainly related to the non-business areas of cooperative life, while business logic dominated (...) the most central aspects. Stakeholder engagement was mainly related to consensus building, while dialogic engagement based on a pluralistic understanding was only partially considered and then neglected. The social capital in the local area, the growing size of the organisation and the related power structure embrace stakeholder engagement, influencing the orientation of the dialogic dynamic. The analysis indicates that a dialogic exchange is a relative concept which depends on the interests involved and the topics discussed. It also reveals that the key factors in the democratisation of stakeholder engagement are a mutual understanding and long-term opportunities. Common sociopolitical aspects are also important, but they do not necessarily guarantee the creation of dialogism paths. The research contributes to the critical dialogic literature in revealing whether and how stakeholder engagement has been implemented in a specific setting. It also shows the limitations of voluntarist stakeholder engagement initiatives. (shrink)

La normativa sobre agricultura orgánica de los principales mercados está diseñada conforme al entendimiento de que la distancia entre el productor y el consumidor de alimentos orgánicos es considerable, lo cual no tiene que ser necesariamente cierto. En consecuencia se han desarrollado iniciativas orientadas a la utilización de canales comerciales cortos para la producción orgánica, basados asimismo en la participación de los agentes que los integran en los procesos de certificación. Dentro de este contexto destacan los Sistemas Participativos de Garantía (...) como modelos de certificación participativa en red, los cuales buscan potenciar la generación de confianza y el aprendizaje mutuo. El presente artículo tiene como objetivo describir los principios en los cuales se fundamentan, así como el funcionamiento, de los Sistemas Participativos de Garantía acorde con una estrategia de fomento de la participación comunitaria, la agricultura tradicional y el desarrollo rural endógeno. (shrink)

Between-subject variability in cognitive performance has been related to inter-individual differences in functional brain networks. Targeting the dorsal attention network we questioned whether resting-state functional connectivity within the DAN can predict individual performance in spatial attention tasks and whether there is short-term adaptation of DAN-FC in response to task engagement. Twenty-seven participants first underwent resting-state fMRI, they subsequently performed different tasks of spatial attention [including visual search ] and immediately afterwards received another rs-fMRI. Intra- and inter-hemispheric FC between core hubs (...) of the DAN, bilateral intraparietal sulcus and frontal eye field, was analyzed and compared between PRE and POST. Furthermore, we investigated rs-fMRI-behavior correlations between the DAN-FC in PRE/POST and task performance parameters. The absolute DAN-FC did not change from PRE to POST. However, different significant rs-fMRI-behavior correlations were revealed for intra-/inter-hemispheric connections in the PRE and POST run. The stronger the FC between left FEF and IPS before task engagement, the better was the learning effect in VS. And the faster the VS, the stronger was the FC between right FEF and IPS after task engagement. To conclude, DAN-FC relates to the individual performance in spatial attention tasks supporting the view of functional brain networks as priors for cognitive ability. Despite a high inter- and intra-individual stability of DAN-FC, the change of FC-behavior correlations after task performance possibly indicates task-related adaptation of the DAN, underlining that behavioral experiences may shape intrinsic brain activity. However, spontaneous state fluctuations of the DAN-FC over time cannot be fully ruled out as an alternative explanation. (shrink)

Introduction: Congruence, understood as the agreement between the patient's preferred place of death and their actual place of death, is emerging as one of the main variables indicating the quality of end-of-life care. The aim of this research was to conduct a systematic literature review on levels and determinants of congruence in palliative patients over the period 2010–2021.Method: A systematic review of the literature in the databases of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Cuiden, the Cochrane Library, CSIC Indexes, (...) and IBECS. Information was extracted on research characteristics, congruence, and associated factors.Results: A total of 30 studies were identified, mainly of retrospective observational design. The congruence values varied substantially between the various studies, ranging from 21 to 100%. The main predictors of congruence include illness-related factors, individual factors, and environmental factors.Conclusion: This review, in comparison with previous studies, shows that treatment-related factors such as physical pain control, marital status, having a non-working relative, age, discussing preferred place of death with a healthcare professional, and caregiver's preference have been associated with higher levels of congruence. Depending on the study, other factors have been associated with either higher or lower congruence, such as the patient's diagnosis, gender, or place of residence. This information is useful for designing interventions aimed towards greater congruence at the end of life. (shrink)

Los tópicos sobre salud oral en los programas académicos de las carreras de ciencias de la salud son insuficientes. El propósito de este trabajo fue Identificar los tópicos sobre salud oral en los programas académicos de las carreras de ciencias de la salud de la Universidad del Alba. Se realizó un estudio transversal-observacional de los programas académicos de las carreras de ciencias de salud que imparte la Universidad del Alba. Los tópicos sobre salud oral en los programas académicos de las (...) carreras de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud basados en competencia son escasos. (shrink)

En este artículo revisamos la relación que se establece entre la democracia y el proyecto socialista. Debido a que las democracias actuales son predominantemente representativas de tradición liberal, también analizamos su ideal central: la libertad, en relación con el valor más importante de toda propuesta socialista: la igualdad. Nos referimos a la propuesta de Cornelius Castoriadis de un proyecto de autonomía personal y colectiva que entiende la libertad y la igualdad como propósitos políticos, por lo que la verdadera democracia se (...) identificaría con el socialismo. Palabras clave: Democracia; socialismo; libertad; igualdad; autonomía. Democracy and Socialism? An approach to Cornelius Castoriadis’ proposalIn this paper we review the relation between democracy and the socialist project. Since current democracies are predominantly representative and liberal, we also analyze their central ideal, namely, freedom, in connection with the most important value of every socialist proposal, namely, equality. We will refer to Cornelius Castoriadis’ proposal, centered on a project of personal and collective autonomy that recognizes both freedom and equality as political purposes, whereby true democracy would be identified with socialism. Keywords: Democracy; socialism; freedom; equality; autonomy. (shrink)

Dynamic Assessment (DA) has been shown to have more predictive value than conventional tests for academic performance. However, in relation to reading difficulties, further research is needed to determine the predictive validity of DA for specific aspects of the different processes involved in reading and the differential validity of DA for different subgroups of students with an academic disadvantage. This paper analyzes the implementation of a DA device that evaluates processes involved in reading (EDPL) among 60 students with reading comprehension (...) difficulties between 9 and 16 years of age, of whom 20 have intellectual disabilities, 24 have reading-related learning disabilities, and 16 have socio-cultural disadvantages. We specifically analyze the predictive validity of the EDPL device over attitude towards reading, and the use of dialogue/participation strategies in reading activities in the classroom during the implementation stage. We also analyze if the EDPL device provides additional information to that obtained with a conventionally applied personal-social adjustment scale (APSL). Results showed that dynamic scores, obtained from the implementation of the EDPL device, significantly predict the studied variables. Moreover, dynamic scores showed a significant incremental validity in relation to predictions based on an APSL scale. In relation to differential validity, the results indicated the superior predictive validity for DA for students with intellectual disabilities and reading disabilities than for students with socio-cultural disadvantages. Furthermore, the role of metacognition and its relation to the processes of personal-social adjustment in explaining the results is discussed. (shrink)

This paper investigates the One over Many, first as it was first introduced by Plato. Here, it is argued, the One over Many can be understood in at least two senses, both different from, but in a sense included in, the sense in which the One-over-Many is regarded as an argument for the existence of universals. In both of these senses, it is argued, it is possible to accept the One-over-Many while denying the existence of universals.This established, I examine the (...) argument from the One-over-Many as given within the framework of Armstrong’s theory of universals. Within this framework there is another thesis of great import, that of scientific realism. I will try to show that there exists a problematic tension, if not an outright contradiction, between this thesis and that of the argument from the One-over-Many. It seems that, as soon as you accept a scientific realism, the support provided by the argument from the One-over-Many dissolves, or, vice versa, if you claim support from the argument the results of your scientific realism seem to be contradicted. I will argue that the way to resolve this tension is to give up the argument from the One-over-Many. In particular, this will results in a weakening of Armstrong’s case for the existence of universals. In general, discussing the argument from the One-over-Many brings to the fore a feature common to all senses given to the One-over-Many, and thereby a feature affecting all theories of properties (since all theories of properties in one sense or another refer on the One-over-Many). (shrink)

Hugo Grotius’s best-known work, De iure belli ac pacis, appeared in 1625 in Paris with the author’s approval. A second unauthorised version was published in 1626 in Frankfurt. In 1631 the Amsterdam publisher, Willem Janszoon Blaeu (1571–1638), issued the third edition, this one authorised by the author – and this edition featured nearly a thousand revisions by Grotius. The purpose of this report is to analyse the context behind the publication of this third edition and the copies’ provenance records. Using (...) online and card catalogues, we have located 154 copies. We examined 52 copies in person, and another three fully digitised copies online. We hope that this research note on preliminary results will generate greater interest in this unduly neglected edition, and that readers will kindly bring further copies to our attention. (shrink)

The spiritual identity development of six South African, emerging adult, female, postgraduate psychology students (21 to 22 years old) was explored using reflective writing exercises and individual interviews. Interpretative phenomenological analysis revealed that spiritual identity exploration occurs continuously across the lifespan, with optimal opportunities for deepened development during emerging adulthood. Development happens in context and is enhanced by the postgraduate psychology training experience, as well as exposure to spiritual and religious diversity. Reflections on challenging events result in sophisticated meaning-making processes (...) regarding purpose in life, as well as the authoring of a spiritual life story. There is an intricate and reciprocal relationship between the development of a spiritual identity and the psychology profession – spirituality, values and worldviews can be regarded as important aspects of the therapeutic process for many individuals. (shrink)

Although it can be straightforward to define the features of physical traits, complex cultural categories tend to elude widely accepted definitions that transcend cultural and historical context. Addressing papers by Mehr et al. and Savage et al., which both aim to explain music as an evolved trait, we discuss fundamental problems that arise from their conceptualizations of music.

Lara Buchak sets out a new account of rational decision-making in the face of risk. She argues that the orthodox view is too narrow, and suggests an alternative, more permissive theory: one that allows individuals to pay attention to the worst-case or best-case scenario, and vindicates the ordinary decision-maker.

There are currently two robust traditions in philosophy dealing with doxastic attitudes: the tradition that is concerned primarily with all-or-nothing belief, and the tradition that is concerned primarily with degree of belief or credence. This paper concerns the relationship between belief and credence for a rational agent, and is directed at those who may have hoped that the notion of belief can either be reduced to credence or eliminated altogether when characterizing the norms governing ideally rational agents. It presents a (...) puzzle which lends support to two theses. First, that there is no formal reduction of a rational agent’s beliefs to her credences, because belief and credence are each responsive to different features of a body of evidence. Second, that if our traditional understanding of our practices of holding each other responsible is correct, then belief has a distinctive role to play, even for ideally rational agents, that cannot be played by credence. The question of which avenues remain for the credence-only theorist is considered. (shrink)

Neuroethics, in its modern form, investigates the impact of brain science in four basic dimensions: the self, social policy, practice and discourse. In this study, we analyzed a set of 461 peer-reviewed articles with neuroethics content, published by authors from 32 countries. We analyzed the data for: (1) trends in the development of international neuroethics over time, and (2) how challenges at the intersection of ethics and neuroscience are viewed in countries that are considered developed by International Monetary Fund (IMF) (...) standards, and in those that are developing. Our results demonstrate a steady increase in global participation in neuroethics from 1989 to 2005, characterized by an increase in numbers of articles published specifically on neuroethics, journals publishing these articles, and countries contributing to the literature. The focus from all countries was on the practice of brain science and the amelioration of neurological disease. Indicators of technology creation and diffusion in developing countries were specifically correlated with increases in publications concerning policy implications of brain science. Neuroethics is an international endeavor and, as such, should be sensitive to the impact that context has on acceptance and use of technological innovation. (shrink)

Suppose we want to do the most good we can with a particular sum of money, but we cannot be certain of the consequences of different ways of making use of it. This article explores how our attitudes towards risk and ambiguity bear on what we should do. It shows that risk-avoidance and ambiguity-aversion can each provide good reason to divide our money between various charitable organizations rather than to give it all to the most promising one. It also shows (...) how different attitudes towards risk and ambiguity affect whether we should give to an organization which does a small amount of good for certain or to one which does a large amount of good with some small or unknown probability. (shrink)

Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Volume 45, Issue 3, Page 291-300, September 2022.

This paper goes beyond critiques of western philosophical notions of space as passive, feminine, and unintelligent by reconfiguring containment as an active process. The author draws on work in the history of technology, on a cybernetic epistemology that emphasizes the interdependence of organism and environment, and on intersubjectivist psychoanalytic theories of the maternal provision. A more unexpected ally is found in Heidegger, whose writings on holding and supply are read in ways that contribute to the development of an urgently required (...) philosophy of container technologies. (shrink)

Praise, unlike blame, is generally considered well intended and beneficial, and therefore in less need of scrutiny. In line with recent developments, we argue that praise merits more thorough philosophical analysis. We show that, just like blame, praise can be problematic by expressing a failure to respect a person’s equal value or worth as a person. Such patronizing praise, however, is often more insidious, because praise tends to be regarded as well intended and beneficial, which renders it harder to recognize (...) and object to. Among other things, a philosophical analysis of patronizing praise helps people on the receiving end articulate why they feel uncomfortable or offended by it, shows patronizing praisers how their praise is problematic, and provides input for further philosophical analysis of blame.In the first section of the paper, we discuss how hypocritical praise, just like hypocritical blame, can fail to respect the equality of persons by expressing that the praiser applies more demanding moral standards to the praisee than to themself. We further discuss obstructionist praise, which loosely corresponds to complicit blame, and can similarly express that certain moral standards apply to others but not to the praiser. In the second part of the paper, we discuss another variety of patronizing praise. Praise can be an inaccurate appraisal of a person based on irrelevant considerations – like race, gender, or class – and thereby constitute a failure to recognize their equal worth as a person. We identify three ways in which such praise can manifest. (shrink)

This paper provides an account of what it is to have faith in a proposition p, in both religious and mundane contexts. It is argued that faith in p doesn’t require adopting a degree of belief that isn’t supported by one’s evidence but rather it requires terminating one’s search for further evidence and acting on the supposition that p. It is then shown, by responding to a formal result due to I.J. Good, that doing so can be rational in a (...) number of circumstances. If expected utility theory is the correct account of practical rationality, then having faith can be both epistemically and practically rational if the costs associated with gathering further evidence or postponing the decision are high. If a more permissive framework is adopted, then having faith can be rational even when there are no costs associated with gathering further evidence. (shrink)

This paper examines medical scientists’ accounts of their rediscoveries and reassessments of old materials. It looks at how historical patient files and brain samples of the first cases of Alzheimer’s disease became reused as scientific objects of inquiry in the 1990s, when a genetic neuropathologist from Munich and a psychiatrist from Frankfurt lead searches for left-overs of Alzheimer’s ‘founder cases’ from the 1900s. How and why did these researchers use historical methods, materials and narratives, and why did the biomedical community (...) cherish their findings as valuable scientific facts about Alzheimer’s disease? The paper approaches these questions by analysing how researchers conceptualised ‘history’ while backtracking and reassessing clinical and histological materials from the past. It elucidates six ways of conceptualising history as a biomedical matter: scientific assessments of the past, i.e. natural scientific understandings of ‘historical facts’; history in biomedicine, e.g. uses of old histological collections in present day brain banks; provenance research, e.g. applying historical methods to ensure the authenticity of brain samples; technical biomedical history, e.g. reproducing original staining techniques to identify how old histological slides were made; founding traditions, i.e. references to historical objects and persons within founding stories of scientific communities; and priority debates, e.g. evaluating the role particular persons played in the discovery of a disease such as Alzheimer’s. Against this background, the paper concludes with how the various ways of using and understanding ‘history’ were put forward to re-present historic cases as ‘proto-types’ for studying Alzheimer’s disease in the present. (shrink)

Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Volume 45, Issue 3, Page 291-300, September 2022.