This paper starts by establishing a prima facie case that disadvantaged groups or individuals are more likely to get a chronic disease and are in a disadvantaged position to adhere to chronic treatment despite access through Universal Health Coverage. However, the main aim of this paper is to explore the normative implications of this claim by examining two different but intertwined argumentative lines that might contribute to a better understanding of the ethical challenges faced by chronic disease health policy. The (...) paper develops the argument that certain disadvantages which may predispose to illness might overlap with disadvantages that may hinder self-management, potentially becoming disadvantageous in handling chronic disease. If so, chronic diseases may be seen as disadvantages in themselves, describing a reproduction of disadvantage among the chronically ill and a vicious circle of disadvantage that could both predict and shed light on the catastrophic health outcomes among disadvantaged groups—or individuals—dealing with chronic disease. (shrink)

El presente manuscrito intenta, a través de una sucinta reflexión, dar cuenta de cómo el cuidado de sí rescatado por Foucault podría ser comprendido como una alternativa para superar los mecanismos identitarios de control neoliberal, gracias a la relación activa que el sujeto desarrolla con la verdad. En el entendido de que el abandono del espacio de la norma y el conocimiento por parte de aquella, y su ubicación al servicio de la autoconformación del sujeto favorecería el desarrollo de una (...) relación plena y coherente de cada individuo consigo mismo. (shrink)

Chronic diseases are the main disease burden worldwide, leading to premature deaths and poor individual and population health outcomes. Although modern medicine has made significant progress in developing effective treatments, only around 50% of people follow long-term treatment recommendations in high-income countries and presumably even less in low-income and middle-income countries.1 Health outcomes for chronic diseases follow a social gradient across socioeconomic groups, suggesting that the 50% adherence rate distributes unequally across social groups, affecting those who live in disadvantage the (...) most despite universal health coverage.2 Bioethicists have largely ignored inequalities that arise from differences in adherence to long-term treatments and the importance of the ethical dimension of chronicity for clinical practice. As I discuss in detail elsewhere, the concept of ‘chronic disease’ lacks a successful and agreed definition, failing to be structured in a traditional way and allowing for a disjunctive group of diseases to fall under the concept.3 Still, the main element that helps distinguish ‘chronic diseases’ from all other diseases is their long duration, so the noun chronicity can help demarcate and identify the nature of ‘chronic disease’. Drawing on conceptual analysis and phenomenological research on illness that highlight the tension between the cyclical and static elements of chronic disease, I have argued that chronicity has a phenomenological sense beyond its …. (shrink)

El presente texto contiene los resultados de una revisión bibliográfica realizada con el objetivo de establecer la importancia de desarrollar competencias emocionales durante el proceso de formación de los profesionales de la salud, especialmente del área de odontología, atendiendo a que la especialidad está registrada como una de las profesiones más estresantes, situación que podría originarse durante el proceso educativo, ya que sus alumnos experimentan altos niveles de ansiedad o estrés durante su formación. Se entiende por competencia emocional el conjunto (...) de conocimientos, capacidades, habilidades y actitudes necesarias para comprender, expresar y regular los fenómenos emocionales. Como conclusión, esta revisión permitió demostrar como la inclusión de estas competencias en el plan de estudios repercutiría significativamente en el bienestar psicológico de estos estudiantes. This paper contains the results of a bibliographical review which was carried out aiming at establishing the importance of developing emotional competence in health professionals' training, especially on the dentistry area; providing that this specialty is one of the most stressful. The educational process might be at the root of this situation, since students experience high levels of anxiety or stress during their training. Emotional competence is understood as the group of knowledge, abilities and attitudes needed to understand, express and regulate emotional phenomena. In conclusion, this review enabled to demonstrate how the inclusion of emotional competence in dentistry major's syllabus would have an influence on student's psychological well-being. (shrink)

RESUMEN Las concepciones de salud mental son variadas y se han ido sucediendo de manera que cada una ha ido aportando nuevos matices a las anteriores, generando una nueva visión cada vez, donde las necesidades de la propia sociedad, han ido conformando una conceptualización de la salud mental de acuerdo con el contexto histórico, la disciplina y su modelación según las exigencias y particularidades de la sociedad y la cultura vigentes. Por consiguiente, se hace necesario replantear los conceptos desde los (...) que se interpreta la idea de salud mental, si guardan o no relación con definiciones universales o a concepciones construidas a partir de los diferentes planteamientos de salud-enfermedad. En consecuencia, es importante el aporte que se puede realizar desde la investigación para llegar a una construcción del concepto de Salud Mental que considere la multidisciplinariedad. Bajo esta perspectiva, se contextualiza el concepto de salud mental desde lo multidisciplinario. ABSTRACT There are several mental health conceptions which have been followed by others in such a way that each one of them has contributed to the previous ones, generating a different view each time, where the needs of society itself have made a conceptualization of mental health according to the historical context, discipline and model according to the requirements and particular features of society and the current culture. Therefore, it’s necessary to rethink the concepts from which the idea of mental health is interpreted, if it’s related to universal definitions or not, or to conceptions made from different approaches on health-disease. As a result, the contributions that can be made from research to achieve the construction of a multidisciplinary Mental Health concept are important. From this perspective, the concept of mental health is contextualized from a multidisciplinary point of view. (shrink)

RESUMEN Introducción: Son escasos los servicios en salud mental dentro del contexto escolar que permitan una integración intersectorial para superar la brecha de falta de asistencia en salud mental en la población infanto - juvenil, aun cuando, es en la escuela donde se detectan mayoritariamente los problemas de salud mental. Objetivo: Comentar el uso de servicios de salud mental en el ambiente escolar en relación con los trastornos mentales y trastornos subumbrales. Método: El presente resultado se obtiene a partir del (...) “Estudio de Prevalencia Comunitaria de Trastornos Psiquiátricos y Utilización de Servicios de la Población Infanto-Juvenil Chilena”. La muestra estuvo representada por sujetos entre 4 y 18 años. La información sobre el uso de servicio de salud mental se recogió con una versión modificada de la Escala Service Assesment for Children and Adolescent. Se realizó un modelo de regresión logística para analizar cinco áreas del uso de servicios en el ambiente escolar, las cuales se correlacionaron con diagnósticos de trastorno mentales y trastorno subumbral de ansiedad, disruptivo y depresión en el último año. Resultados: Las escuelas se enfrentan a grandes desafíos sobre cómo proporcionar apoyo efectivo de salud mental para los estudiantes, que presentan algún tipo de trastorno mental o trastorno subumbral. Discussión: Las instituciones educativas requieren ser visualizadas como una entidad que podría satisfacer las necesidades que se advierten de manera urgente en atención, prevención y promoción de problemas mentales en la población infanto- juvenil, si se vinculan de forma más directa con los servicios de salud mental. ABSTRACT Introduction: Mental health services are scarce within the school context that allow intersectoral integration to overcome the gap in mental health care in the child and adolescent population, being the school where mental health problems are mostly detected. Objective: to know the use of mental health services in the school environment in relation to mental disorders and subthreshold disorders. Method: The present secondary study is carried out from the "Study of Community Prevalence of Psychiatric Disorders and Utilization of Services of the Chilean Child-Youth Population". The sample was represented by subjects between 4 and 18 years old. Information on the use of mental health service was collected with a modified version of the Service Assessment Scale for Children and Adolescents. A logistic regression model was performed to analyze five areas of the use of services in the school environment, which were correlated with diagnoses of mental disorders and subthreshold anxiety, disruptive and depression disorder in the last year. Results: Schools face great challenges on how to provide effective mental health support for students, who present some type of mental disorder or subthreshold disorder. Discusion: Educational institutions need to be visualized as an entity that could meet the needs that are urgently noticed in attention, prevention and promotion of mental problems in the child and adolescent population, if it is linked more directly with health services. (shrink)

In the mid-1970s, the fascist-leaning dictatorships in Spain (1939–1977) and Portugal (1933–1974) fell. Closely linked to the 1973 oil crisis, debates over energy and technology policies became very prominent during the ensuing political redefinition of both countries. Two decades after the first international agreements between the Iberian regimes and the United States for the development of nuclear programs, a myriad of movements of social resistance to nuclear technology emerged in dialogue with anti-nuclear organizations in other European countries. Fun and playfulness (...) have been used for top–down popularization and banalization of nuclear technologies since the 1950s, but here pleasant forms of resistance also played a central role in contesting national energy plans, expert discourses, and vested interests. This article explores what we call “anti-nuclear fun,” the use of amusement, play, and humor as political and epistemic tools to familiarize society with the exceptional and daily risks of the “peaceful atom.”. (shrink)

In this study we examine (1) how a manager’s risk behavior is influenced by developing success (or failure) as an impending settling up deadline to report performance approaches, (2) how willingness to provide transparent accountability is negatively affected by perceived risk and eroding trust, and (3) how others interpret and respond to reduced transparency. As perceptions of high levels of risks suggest a lack of environmental control of a firm’s destiny in contemporary settings, we adopt a historical approach to examine (...) these issues. In this respect we draw on primary sources found in library archives in Spain and Argentina. Our focal case refers to the contract signed and executed between the South Sea Company and Captain José de Salinas (1731–1735) to walk 408 Negroes from Buenos Aires to Potosí and sell them en route or at destination. Drawing on this evidence, we examine how bring about unethical conduct featured by increasingly risky business practices, and how eroding trust conditions lead to only summary record-keeping and delayed reporting. In turn, diminished accountability further undermined trust. Our findings have implications for further research in this area as well as for contemporary cases of accounting failures. (shrink)

This review provides an overview of the ethics of extinctions with a focus on the Western analytical environmental ethics literature. It thereby gives special attention to the possible philosophical grounds for Michael Soulé’s assertion that the untimely ‘extinction of populations and species is bad’. Illustrating such debates in environmental ethics, the guiding question for this review concerns why – or when – anthropogenic extinctions are bad or wrong, which also includes the question of when that might not be the case (...) (i.e. which extinctions are even desirable). After providing an explanation of the disciplinary perspective taken (section “Introduction”), the concept of extinction and its history within that literature are introduced (section “Understanding extinction”). Then, in section “Why (or when) might anthropogenic extinctions be morally problematic?”, different reasons for why anthropogenic extinctions might be morally problematic are presented based on the loss of species’ value, harm to nonhuman individuals, the loss of valuable biological variety and duties to future generations. This section concludes by also considering cases where anthropogenic extinctions might be justified. Section “How to respond to extinctions?” then addresses a selection of topics concerning risks and de-extinction technologies. Finally, the section on “Extinction studies” introduces other viewpoints on the ethics of extinction from the extinction studies literature, followed by the “Conclusion”. (shrink)

because whenever an observer observes, he creates a contingent distinction between what is observed and what is by necessity left unobserved. ...

Saint Paul's "thorn in the flesh" has been the subject of much controversy in medical, historical and religious literature. It was crucial for the development of Paul's theology and, therefore, its study is important for a better understanding of early Christianity. The purpose of this article is to review the available evidence on this issue, perform a historical and medical critical analysis and suggest plausible diagnosis that have not been previously published in scientific literature. Our research on primary sources seem (...) to indicate that in 41–42 AD Paul of Tarsus developed a clinical picture with a pain similar to that of a thorn injury and bad physical appearance. It could also have a chronic course with a limited number of relapses and few global. It could remind Job’s illness and provoke humiliation in Paul and repulse in his audience. Multiple diseases could explain some of these data, but fewer explain all of them. Though a definitive diagnosis cannot be achieved, we think that cutaneous disorders are the most obvious candidates for a humiliating and painful disease which, however, would permit long journeys during more than a decade. Disorders with cutaneous involvement like lupus erythematosus, dermatomyositis, urticaria/angioedema, leukocytoclastic vasculitis or nodular vasculitis should be added to other possibilities previously reported. (shrink)

The production of good sound generation in the violin is a complex task that requires coordination and spatiotemporal control of bowing gestures. The use of motion-capture technologies to improve performance or reduce injury risks in the area of kinesiology is becoming widespread. The combination of motion accuracy and sound quality feedback has the potential of becoming an important aid in violin learning. In this study, we evaluate motion-capture and sound-quality analysis technologies developed inside the context of the TELMI, a technology-enhanced (...) music learning project. We analyzed the sound and bow motion of 50 participants with no prior violin experience while learning to produce a stable sound in the violin. Participants were divided into two groups: the experimental group received real-time visual feedback both on kinematics and sound quality, while participants in the control group practiced without any type of external help. An additional third group of violin experts performed the same task for comparative purposes. After the practice session, all groups were evaluated in a transfer phase without feedback. At the practice phase, the experimental group improved their bowing kinematics in comparison to the control group, but this was at the expense of impairing the sound quality of their performance. At the retention phase, the experimental group showed better results in sound quality, especially concerning control of sound dynamics. Besides, we found that the expert group improved the stability of their sound while using the technology. All in all, these results emphasize the importance of feedback technologies in learning complex tasks, such as musical instrument learning. (shrink)

El artículo problematiza el abordaje de la ética en la investigación en psicología con infancias en el siglo XX y su articulación con los códigos y principios éticos. Se elaboran tres puntos de inflexión con la literatura en la materia, a saber: (1) un cuestionamiento en la producción de universales que ponen siempre la exclusión de un singular susceptible de ser sometido a suplicio, (2) desplazamiento de la idea de que existe una buena y una mala lectura de los documentos (...) prescriptivos para instalar un énfasis en la multiplicidad de lecturas y usos que se desprenden de los marcos legales, normativos, deontológicos y heurísticos; y (3) una observación de la figura del investigador realzando su carácter marcado en una posición dentro de dinámicas socio-histórico-materiales. Son abordados dos casos de experimentación con infancias en psicología, correspondientes al caso del Pequeño Albert por John B. Watson y Raslie Rayner en 1920, y el protocolo experimental de la Situación Extraña realizado en la década de 1970 por Mary Ainsworth y que fue la base de la Teoría del Apego inventada por John Bowlby. Se concluyen una serie de desafíos para la formación en ética de la investigación en psicología que exceden los márgenes de un enfoque centrado en el conocimiento y manejo de marcos legales, normativos, deontológicos y heurísticos para la resolución de dilemas éticos. (shrink)

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, procrastination has become commonplace due to changes in teaching and learning, which trigger students' academic burnout. As a result, it has increased the intensity of procrastination among students who are enrolled in online learning programs. As a result, students have difficulty as a result of the rapid change from in-person learning to online learning. The study investigates the relationship between academic burnout and procrastination among 150 grade 12 senior high school students. Hence, this study employed (...) a correlational design. Based on the inferential analysis, the r coefficient of 0.71 indicates a high 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 academic burnout and academic procrastination among grade 12 senior high school students. (shrink)

In this paper a formalized logic of propositions, PA1, is presented. It is proven consistent and its relationships to traditional logic, to PM ([15]), to subjunctive (including contrary-to-fact) implication and to the “paradoxes” of material and strict implication are developed. Apart from any intrinsic merit it possesses, its chief significance lies in demonstrating the feasibility of a general logic containing theprinciple of subjunctive contrariety, i.e., the principle that ‘Ifpwere true thenqwould be true’ and ‘Ifpwere true thenqwould be false’ are incompatible.

Big Data evangelists often argue that algorithms make decision-making more informed and objective—a promise hotly contested by critics of these technologies. Yet, to date, most of the debate has focused on the instruments themselves, rather than on how they are used. This article addresses this lack by examining the actual practices surrounding algorithmic technologies. Specifically, drawing on multi-sited ethnographic data, I compare how algorithms are used and interpreted in two institutional contexts with markedly different characteristics: web journalism and criminal justice. (...) I find that there are surprising similarities in how web journalists and legal professionals use algorithms in their work. In both cases, I document a gap between the intended and actual effects of algorithms—a process I analyze as “decoupling.” Second, I identify a gamut of buffering strategies used by both web journalists and legal professionals to minimize the impact of algorithms in their daily work. Those include foot-dragging, gaming, and open critique. Of course, these similarities do not exhaust the differences between the two cases, which are explored in the discussion section. I conclude with a call for further ethnographic work on algorithms in practice as an important empirical check against the dominant rhetoric of algorithmic power. (shrink)

In recent years, a keen interest has emerged in the world of science regarding the relationship between the biological and the psychological aspects of the mind. How can the neural activity of the brain create thoughts, memory, feelings, and emotions? The answer to this question is the subject of this book. Jorge Angel M.D. posits that, although the mind is the byproduct of the firing of neurons in different parts of the brain, it is also the organizing principle of brain (...) activity. The brain and the mind have a symbiotic relationship that is present throughout the life span of the individual. In an effort to find answers to the riddle of the mind-brain relationship, Dr. Angel describes his personal experiences of many years in the practice of the healing arts, and he draws on a lifetime of study into the biology of the brain. The author maintains that the mind is much more than consciousness. Consciousness has been described metaphorically as the small tip of an iceberg floating in a sea of unconsciousness. Dwelling on the evolutionary development of the brain, he explains how intellectual experience arises from the activity of cell aggregates in the residual reptilian, residual mammalian, and rational parts of the brain that we have inherited from our animal ancestors through billions of adaptive trade-offs over millions of years. The human mind is one of the last unresolved mysteries in the world of science. This book provides a meaningful insight into the nature and function of the mind in normal subjects and their ability to think, feel, and remember. It also portrays in detail the changes that can be brought on the mind of humans by an assortment of psychological and neurological disorders. (shrink)

The Totonac homegarden is a traditionally designed agroecosystem mixing different elements, such as cultivated and wild plants, and livestock. Our objective was to understand the role and importance of homegardens as a strategy for subsistence and natural resources management. Anthropological fieldwork was carried out in Coxquihui, Veracruz, Mexico, a Totonac community. Conventional sampling using a questionnaire yielded a sample of 40 individuals, each representing a family group. Personal interviews, life stories, observations, and field transects enriched survey information. Fieldwork permitted identification (...) of four types of Totonac homegardens: backyards, cropping fields, acahuales or fallow fields, and fences or field edges. Each of these gardens yields an array of products and services important for several cultural roles and natural resource management aims. Totonacs see land as the dominant and most critical resource. A great deal of terrain is steeply sloped and soils are poor. Homegardens play a key role in a production system that minimizes these site limitations, striking a balance between resource maintenance and subsistence needs. Their functions are ecological, to foster a multistrata vegetation cover, and a continuous supply of organic matter to the soil; economic, serving as living storehouses where diverse products (food, timber, firewood, forage, animals, ceremonial supplies, medicinal products), are kept through the annual cycle; and social, performing various social roles such as growing medicinal, ritual, and edible plants, thus supporting beliefs and culture continuity. Studies like this contribute to a better understanding of Totonac culture and native ecology, and give ideas for a better land management. (shrink)

Libro sumamente valioso. Tras sendas visiones de conjunto, muy logradas, del positivismo en América Latina en general y en Venezuela en particular, siguen capítulos sobre: Adolfo Ernst; Rafael Villavicencio; Vicente Marcano; Lasandro Alvarado; Luis Razetti; Guillermo Delgado Palacios; Luis López Méndez; José Gil Fortoul; Laureano Vallenilla Lanz; César Zumeta y Manuel Arcaya. Tiende a hacer comparaciones con otras manifestaciones del positivismo latinoamericano"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Apuntes de un enfoque filosófico de los valores. El sistema de los valores en el ordenamiento. Aproximación histórica al mundo moderno. El sistema en su sentido formal. La tensión entre el contenido formal y material de los valores: Heller, Mortati, Schmitt. Los valores y el Derecho. Una propuesta de construcción. Los valores superiores en la Constitución Española de 1978. NIPO: 007-93-027-5 ISBN: 84-340-0607-3 Depósito legal: M 24257-1993.

La cultura occidental, con la que vivimos y entendemos, nació bajo los auspicios de un triple ente: la conjugación de lacultura arábigo-musulmana, la civilización germano-eslava y el mundo clásico-bíblico; todos éstos vendrían a encajar, en principio, los miembros articulados del hombre moderno occidental. En concreto, las lenguas modernas han resultado un vehículo habitual y pertinente de la cultura clásica, en mayor o menor proporción y la someten a su propio arbitrio, creando una nueva dinámica literaria, determinada por razones estilísticas o (...) de prestigio. Por ello, no dejan de ser preocupantes los constantes vaivenes de una sociedad ávida de informaciones y conocimientos, sin ningún rumbo a seguir ni alguna meta humanamente satisfactoria. (shrink)

Esquema casi dialéctico del miedo a la muerte.--Iniciación en la angustia. (En torno a Sören Kierkegaard)--Elogio de la vigilia.--Sobre el ser del hombre, ser amenazado.--Ejercicio sobre el misterio.--Descartes, y salto en el saber donante.--Invitación al sondeo inicial en la cuestión del ser.-- Ensayo sobre la subjectividad, y de sus tres transformaciones.

La obra capital de Phillip Mainländer se compone de seis capítulos (Analítica de la facultad cognoscitiva, Física, Estética, Ética, Política, Metafísica) y un Anexo (Crítica de las doctrinas de Kant y Schopenhauer). Seis capítulos y un anexo que hacen gala de la intempestividad de su autor. De esa cualidad presente en pocos pensadores y que condiciona la valoración de su obra al paso del tiempo. De esa cualidad que permite pensar más allá de los límites que impone la época. Curiosamente (...) un pensador del siglo XIX ilumina los tiempos que corren. Unos tiempos signados por prácticas ecocidas y sus derivaciones ecosuicidas (Baquedano: 37-38), y cuyas primeras manifestaciones físicas sobre la naturaleza comenzaron, llamativamente, en dicho momento, a saber, en 1784 cuando James Watt patentó su máquina de vapor. (shrink)

Moses Maimonides (1138-1204) is Jewish history's greatest exponent of a rational, philosophically sound Judaism. He strove to reconcile the teachings of the Bible and rabbinic tradition with the principles of Aristotelian philosophy, arguing that religion and philosophy ultimately must arrive at the same truth. Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) is Jewish history's most illustrious "heretic". He believed that truth could be attained through reason alone, and that philosophy and religion were separate domains that could not be reconciled. His critique of the Bible (...) and its teachings caused an intellectual and spiritual upheaval whose effects are still felt today. Rabbi Marc D. Angel discusses major themes in the writings of Maimonides and Spinoza to show us how modern people can deal with religion in an intellectually honest and meaningful way. From Maimonides, we gain insight on how to harmonize traditional religious belief with the dictates of reason. From Spinoza, we gain insight into the intellectual challenges which must be met by modern believers--Book jacket. (shrink)

A common theme in social science studies of algorithms is that they are profoundly opaque and function as “black boxes.” Scholars have developed several methodological approaches in order to address algorithmic opacity. Here I argue that we can explicitly enroll algorithms in ethnographic research, which can shed light on unexpected aspects of algorithmic systems—including their opacity. I delineate three meso-level strategies for algorithmic ethnography. The first, algorithmic refraction, examines the reconfigurations that take place when computational software, people, and institutions interact. (...) The second strategy, algorithmic comparison, relies on a similarity-and-difference approach to identify the instruments’ unique features. The third strategy, algorithmic triangulation, enrolls algorithms to help gather rich qualitative data. I conclude by discussing the implications of this toolkit for the study of algorithms and future of ethnographic fieldwork. (shrink)

In this article we defend the view that, on the All Affected Principle of voting rights, the weight of a person’s vote on a decision should be determined by and only by the degree to which that dec...

Sometimes two expressions in a discourse can be about the same thing in a way that makes that very fact evident to the participants. Consider, for example, 'he' and 'John' in 'John went to the store and he bought some milk'. Let us call this 'de jure' coreference. Other times, coreference is 'de facto' as with 'Mark Twain' and 'Samuel Clemens' in a sincere use of 'Mark Twain is not Samuel Clemens'. Here, agents can understand the speech without knowing that (...) the names refer to the same person. After surveying many available linguistic and pragmatic tools (intentions to corefer, presuppositions, meanings, indexing, discourse referents, binding etc.) I conclude that we must posit a new semantic primitive to account for de jure coreference. (shrink)

Individuals and businesses make numerous payments every day. They sometimes have choices about what forms of payment to make or accept, and at other times are effectively forced to use a particular form. Often there is an asymmetric power relationship between payer and payee that raises the issue of whether one side unfairly exploits the other. Is it unethical exploitation for an employer to pay employees with a fee-laden payroll card over other more convenient forms of payment? Does the fee (...) structure of payment networks such as Visa and MasterCard unfairly exploit merchants? The bitcoin payment system is an ethical as well as technological evolution as it was designed to be an electronic payment system that does not rely upon trust. Can an entire payment system like bitcoin be “evil,” as charged by Krugman? Payment tools as such are ethically neutral, but can be used in an ethical or unethical manner. (shrink)

Auditory-guided vocal learning is a mechanism that operates both in humans and other animal species making us capable to imitate arbitrary sounds. Both auditory memories and auditory feedback interact to guide vocal learning. This may explain why it is easier for humans to imitate the pitch of a human voice than the pitch of a synthesized sound. In this study, we compared the effects of two different feedback modalities in learning pitch-matching abilities using a synthesized pure tone in 47 participants (...) with no prior music experience. Participants were divided into three groups: a feedback group receiving real-time visual feedback of their pitch as well as knowledge of results; an equal-timbre group receiving additional auditory feedback of the target note with a similar timbre to the instrument being used ; and a control group practicing without any feedback or knowledge of results. An additional fourth group of violin experts performed the same task for comparative purposes. All groups were posteriorly evaluated in a transfer phase. Both experimental groups improved their intonation abilities with the synthesized sound after receiving feedback. Participants from the equal-timber group seemed as capable as the feedback group of producing the required pitch with the voice after listening to the human voice, but not with the violin. In addition, only participants receiving real-time visual feedback learned and retained in the transfer phase the mapping between the synthesized pitch and its correspondence with the produced vocal or violin pitch. It is suggested that both the effect of an objective external reward, together with the experience of exploring the pitch space with their instrument in an explicit manner, helped participants to understand how to control their pitch production, strengthening their schemas, and favoring retention. (shrink)

As the result of the complexity inherent in nature, mathematical models employed in ecology are often governed by a large number of variables. For instance, in the study of population dynamics we often deal with models for structured populations in which individuals are classified regarding their age, size, activity or location, and this structuring of the population leads to high dimensional systems. In many instances, the dynamics of the system is controlled by processes whose time scales are very different from (...) each other. Aggregation techniques take advantage of this situation to build a low dimensional reduced system from which behavior we can approximate the dynamics of the complex original system.In this work we extend aggregation techniques to the case of time dependent discrete population models with two time scales where both the fast and the slow processes are allowed to change at their own characteristic time scale, generalizing the results of previous studies. We propose a non-autonomous model with two time scales, construct an aggregated model and give relationship between the variables governing the original and the reduced systems. We also explore how the properties of strong and weak ergodicity, regarding the capacity of the system to forget initial conditions, of the original system can be studied in terms of the reduced system. (shrink)