Genetic and early environmental factors are interwoven in the etiology of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Epigenetic mechanisms offer the molecular machinery to adapt to environmental conditions. There are gaps in the knowledge about how epigenetic mechanisms are involved in the effects of early affective environment, development of BPD, and psychotherapy response. We reviewed the available evidence of the effects of psychotherapy on changes in DNA methylation and conducted a pilot study in a sample of 11 female adolescents diagnosed with BPD, (...) exploring for changes in peripheral DNA methylation of FKBP5 gene, which encodes for a stress response protein, in relation to psychotherapy, on symptomatology and underlying psychological processes. For this purpose, measures of early trauma, borderline and depressive symptoms, psychotherapy outcome, mentalization, and emotional regulation were studied. A reduction in the average FKBP5 methylation levels was observed over time. Additionally, the decrease in FKBP5 methylation observed occurred only in those individuals who had early trauma and responded to psychotherapy. The results suggest an effect of psychotherapy on epigenetic mechanisms associated with the stress response. The finding that epigenetic changes were only observed in patients with early trauma suggests a specific molecular mechanism of recovery. The results should be taken with caution given the small sample size. Also, further research is needed to adjust for confounding factors and include endocrinological markers and therapeutic process variables. (shrink)

The sight is the ousia of the eye, just as the soul is to the body: up to what point can the eye not see is only an eye by name. Blindness is the worst of privations in the sensible order, by virtue of the highest sense, to wit: the sight.

There is nothing better than René Girard’s mimetic desire and scapegoat’s theory to interpret and understand the enigmatic episode of the death of John the Baptist at the climax of Herod’s birthday celebration. Before Girard, many literary pieces have dealt with this same subject. Among them, Oscar Wilde’s Salome and Gustave Flaubert’s Hérodias, which offer a fascinating approach to the story told both by the Gospels and by historian Flavius Josephus. In this paper, several aspects are taken into consideration, namely, (...) the historical and political context, the secondary “characters”, the events before, during and after the banquet, the apparently inexplicable bloody ending and its terrible aftermath. (shrink)

Se aborda el concepto de ética de la responsabilidad desde una doble perspectiva: desde la racionalidad de la praxis que despliega el sujeto visto como individuo, pero también desde la idea de la solidaridad necesaria para conformar una trama filosófica que aborde la ética empresarial en un sentido abarcador. Bajo el concepto de filosofía de la praxis, se interpreta el concepto de conciencia moral para luego abordar el concepto de responsabilidad social como praxis necesarias de la acción. Se concluye desde (...) la ética de Schopenhauer que el individuo moral debe ser visto en su dimensión social para sortear las dificultades del egoísmo. (shrink)

The existence of current–time universe’s acceleration is usually modeled by means of two main strategies. The first makes use of a dark energy barotropic fluid entering by hand the energy–momentum tensor of Einstein’s theory. The second lies on extending the Hilbert–Einstein action giving rise to the class of extended theories of gravity. In this work, we propose a third approach, derived as an intrinsic geometrical effect of space–time, which provides repulsive regions under certain circumstances. We demonstrate that the effects of (...) repulsive gravity naturally emerge in the field of a homogeneous and isotropic universe. To this end, we use an invariant definition of repulsive gravity based upon the behavior of the curvature eigenvalues. Moreover, we show that repulsive gravity counterbalances the standard gravitational attraction influencing both late and early times of the universe evolution. This phenomenon leads to the present speed up and to the fast expansion due to the inflationary epoch. In so doing, we are able to unify both dark energy and inflation in a single scheme, showing that the universe changes its dynamics when \, at the repulsion onset time where this condition is satisfied. Further, we argue that the spatial scalar curvature can be taken as vanishing because it does not affect at all the emergence of repulsive gravity. We check the goodness of our approach through two cosmological fits involving the most recent union 2.1 supernova compilation. (shrink)

Médico brillante, político, y fundador, docente y Rector de la Universidad del Zulia, Francisco Eugenio Bustamante (1839-1921) ha sido poco estudiado desde los aspectos filosóficos de sus ideas. La Universidad del Zulia de fines del XIX vio confrontarse dialéctica y apasionadamente dos posiciones acerca de la ciencia: la tradicional (creacionismo católico), y la moderna (evolucionistas y positivistas). Este trabajo analiza la concepción del Rector Bustamante de una renovación universitaria, emancipada de confesionalismos, sus planteamientos sobre las ideas modernas publicados en el (...) periódico La Universidad del Zulia, y su influencia en la generación estudiantil que se expresó en dicho periódico. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Extractivist OntologiesLithium Mining and Anthropocene Imaginaries in Chile's Atacama DesertMauricio F. Collao Quevedo (bio)The term energy transition generally refers to efforts to switch from one energy system to another. In light of the current climate crisis, energy transition projects have sought to move societies away from their reliance on fossil fuels and toward a renewables-based energy system. Yet such projects have not been easy to undertake. As Marie (...) Forget and Vincent Bos point out, an energy system based on renewables requires a transformation of energy "regulatory frameworks, technical and organizational structures, geographic forms and network practices" (1). More specifically, current energy transition models rely on the expansion of lithium production, accompanying systems of private property rights, and complex logistical and technical strategies. This article examines the interplay between lithium extraction, national development, and Anthropocene imaginaries in Chile's Atacama Desert, arguing that the green brand of extractivism that characterizes the industry relies on elaborate institutional arrangements aimed at expanding and protecting extractivist ontological and epistemological regimes in the politically contested region. As such, struggles over lithium in Chile's Atacama region demonstrate the extent to which efforts to decolonize the Anthropocene and make possible non-extractive futures of collective survival must unfold on ontological grounds, against the consolidation of the Age of Man.Mining, Water Rights, and Indigenous Communities in the Atacama DesertAmong today's most promising energy sources and materials are sodium, copper, sulfur, nickel, cobalt, rare earth metals, and lithium. These [End Page 78] have become central to energy transition strategies and states seeking to attract investors for development (Lunde Seefeldt). As a report by the World Bank points out, demand for transition minerals like lithium, cobalt, and graphite could increase by 500% by 2050 ("Climate-Smart Mining"), highlighting the extent to which global energy transition efforts are counting on greater extraction of transition minerals and the expansion of extractive frontiers to previously unexplored or unexploited regions (Moore, Capitalism; World Bank Group). Lithium is at the center of this economic and technological shift toward green economies.Global lithium demand is growing rapidly, with investment and production rates growing significantly in recent years (Narins) and catching the attention of states (e.g., China) and corporate tech giants (e.g., Tesla) that are already trying to secure greater shares of the global market. The light metal's popularity is largely due to its internal chemistry, which meets many of the technical and practical requirements associated with green energy transition. Lithium is light, conducive, and energy-dense, which in the context of batteries means faster recharge, lower costs, and charge-holding abilities that make lithium-ion batteries more efficient than a nickel-metal hybrid equivalent (Perotti and Coviello). Because of this, lithium is increasingly being considered as promising for human development and survival as its energy predecessors, inspiring labels such as "white gold," "white petroleum," "the new copper," "the 21st century's petroleum," or the "new gasoline" of sustainability (Acuña and Tironi; Lunde Seefeldt; Voskoboynik and Andreucci).But the industry is not without its downsides. The negative impacts of lithium extraction in Chile's Atacama Desert have been challenged by local communities for whom the metal does not exist as a discrete entity that can be easily extracted from its socioecological context. For many of these communities, lithium is more than a transition metal found in an appropriable and materially heterogenous underground brine: it is an ontologically contested, socioecological entity that sustains and participates in complex webs of life-supporting, place-based, and more-than-human relations. Such accounts of the brine are radically incompatible with "official" state accounts of it, which are maintained through an institutional architecture that allows the ontological basis of the brine to be manipulated for extractive purposes by both corporate and state actors.In the following pages, I examine the ways in which Chile's legal and institutional arrangements, informed by imaginaries of green modernization, [End Page 79] create conditions under which extralocal actors can manipulate along extractivist lines the ontological ambiguity and material heterogeneity of lithium-containing brines in the salt flats of the Atacama Desert. Through an analysis of the ways in which lithium industries in the... (shrink)

Varios autores han realizado análisis sobre la relación entre la religión y la tecnología concluyendo diferentes interpretaciones, sin embargo el movimiento utópico transhumanista se presenta como un potencial desarrollo de nuestra empresa tecnocientífica que podría suponer una “superación” de la religión. En cambio atendiendo a la crítica que realizaron algunos pensadores al respecto, es posible observar una continuidad del proyecto transhumanista con ciertas corrientes herméticas y milenaristas. Para observar este fenómeno se investigan algunas de sus propuestas actuales y su posición (...) general sobre el fenómeno religioso, así como la opinión de la religión contemporánea (principalmente desde el cristianismo occidental) al respecto del transhumanismo. El artículo concluye con un intento de aportar consideraciones alternativas al respecto de la relación entre la religión y el desarrollo tecnológico. (shrink)

Com recuerdo y fiel homenaje a nuestro genial compatrinta, el ingeniero e inventar santanderino Leonardo Torres Quevedo, THEORIA quiere reeoger hoy en sus páginas dos breves, claros y luminosostextos -el primero sobre máquinas algébricas (1901) y el segundo sobre el alcance de una nueva ciencia: la Automática (1915)- de aquel español itinerante e infatigable que, como muy contadascompatriotas, supo aliar claridad y rlgor lógico en las definiciones de los conceptos básicos y desbordante inventiva creadora en la estricta y audaz (...) aplicación técnica de los mismos.Acompaña a estos textos la inolvidable imagen del primer ajedrecista automático (electromagnetico) concebido y construido por Torres Quevedo, anticipador también en la era electromecanica de los que habían de seguirle en la electrónica e informática y triunfador póstumo, en 1951, en el primer Congreso Cibernético de París, donde fué examinado por el hijo del inventor español y el padre de la Cibernética, Norbert Wiener, tres años después de la aparición en el M.I.T. de la primera edición inglesa de la obra de éste último Cybemetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine (1948) que iba a inaugurar la era de la Cibernética, anticipada en tantas ideas, muchos decenios antes, por la Automática de nuestro Torres Quevedo. (shrink)

Aristotle on privation and causality. Here are considered two main problems: the problem of the cause of privation, i.e. of evil, and the problem of privation as a cause. Privation, nonetheless its negativity, represents one of the inner principles of change and can be also considered as the cause of failures, on the one side, and as the cause of chance and luck, on the other side.

The way Aristotle conceives his very notion of potency manifests that capacity and incapacity are not as far from each other as we usually think, the reason for that being the finite character of potency on the one hand and the presence of télos in the heart of potency on the other hand.

Foucault -- Deleuze y Guattari -- Lyotard -- Baudrillard -- Derrida.

The first philosophical treatise on privation belongs to Aristotle. The notion which the Stagirite had of privation as well as its relation to non-being is examined. Difficulties in the knowledge of non-being highlighted -according to Aristotle- by Parmenides and Plato are considered. After a brief review of the solutions offered by the Schoolmen, Millán-Puelles' contribution to the enlightening of the possibility and legitimacy of the Knowledge of privation is examined.

This article discusses J.R.R. Tolkien's understanding of fantasy as a literary genre in light of his essay On Fairy Stories. It addresses key concepts of the essay that are of great importance for a broader understanding of the author's creative process and his views on the importance of fantasy stories for society. Among the concepts discussed in this analysis are Tolkien's ideas of sub-creation, secondary world, inner consistency of reality, as well as his views on Recovery, Escape, and Consolation, which (...) he believed to be the main functions of fantasy. Finally, the concept of Fäerie, which is probably the most important term in the author's lexicon and key to his theory and practice, is also discussed in this work.Keywords: Fäerie. Fantasy Literature. J. R. R. Tolkien. On Fairy Stories. (shrink)

Se analizan los desafíos de futuro de la sociedad digital. Desde perspectiva fenomenológico-hermenéutica, la idea de una ética de la tecnología considera la sociedad digital como dispositivo técnico. La literatura pertinente permite, primero, estudiar la tecnología disruptiva como generadora de cambios sociales, los cuales, a su vez, transforman las formas de la facticidad de la vida. De esta manera, la ética de la sociedad material, sirve de argumento para analizar la ética en la sociedad digital. Tomando la bioética filosófica como (...) instrumento, se concluye que la sociedad digital antepone retos para la vida, los cuales debe afrontar para la supervivencia. (shrink)

Convocada por diferentes estudiosos de los Padres de la Iglesia y del cristianismo antiguo en Latinoamérica, a saber, los profesores Ana Cristina Villa Betancourt, Andrés Mauricio Quevedo Rodríguez y Estiven Valencia Marín, de Colombia; Alejandro Nicola y Francisco Basttita-Harriet, de Argentina; Bruno Gripp, de Brasil; Pamela Chávez Aguilar, de Chile; y Jesús Ma. Aguiñaga Fernández, de México.

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, EarlyView.

Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility, Volume 31, Issue 1, Page 4-16, January 2022.

BackgroundSchool violence and bullying are prevalent problems that affect health in general, especially through the development of emotional and behavioral problems, and can result in the deterioration of the academic performance of the student victim. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence rates of aggressive behaviors according to types of school violence and bullying, sociodemographic characteristics, and variation by department, region, and time in the period between 2014 and 2018 in Peru.MethodsThe design was observational and cross-sectional based (...) on data from the Specialized System for Reporting Cases of School Violence in Peru, which covers a population of 23,641 students at the initial, primary, and secondary levels of Basic Regular Education [Educación Básica Regular ], for the 2014–2018 period. The prevalence rates of the different types of school violence and bullying, the sociodemographic characteristics, and the variation by department, region, and time in the period between 2014 and 2018 were estimated.ResultsPsychological violence/bullying occurred at higher prevalence rates. Women from public institutions reported greater sexual violence, mostly by teachers than by other students. The Selva region had the highest prevalence rate of sexual violence. The departments of Tacna and Piura had the highest and lowest rates of psychological/verbal violence and bullying in 2018.ConclusionPsychological/verbal violence and bullying is highly prevalent among students; women report being victims of sexual violence by administrative personnel of public institutions. The Selva region had the highest rate of sexual violence, and Piura and Tacna had the highest and lowest rates of violence and psychological/verbal bullying. Based on these results, it is suggested to conduct evidence-based prevention programs in Peruvian schools to reduce these social problems. (shrink)

Juan Huarte de San Juan (1529–88) was a physician of the Spanish Renaissance. He wrote the Examen de Ingenios para las Ciencias, translated as The Trial of Men’s Wits (1989[1575–94]), a book that has been acknowledged as a precursor of educational psychology, organizational psychology, behaviorism, neuropsychology and psychiatry. Huarte suggested that before beginning a course of study, students’ intellectual capabilities (i.e. ingenio) should be matched up with the professional studies that best suit their aptitudes. His book had a great impact (...) in Europe from the late 16th century to the mid-18th century. The influence of the Trial spread throughout many areas including philosophy, politics, linguistics and literature. Although there has been a growing interest in Huarte’s work in recent years, biographical studies have been rare; as a result, the information about Huarte’s life is currently incomplete, scattered and sometimes inaccurate. This study presents a systematic archival research on Spanish original sources. We present a reconstruction of Huarte’s life-story based on 32 original documents (1549–c.1650), some of them first discovered during the present survey. Documents are described according to the General International Standard of Archival Description, ISAD(G). The documents uncovered allow for a reappraisal of Huarte’s biography. (shrink)

This is just a brief description of the people involved and activities that occurred during a full-day pre-conference event that included a winery tour, a luncheon, apanel discussion of management systems, and a wine tasting. We completed a facility tour at Gallo’s Frei Ranch Winery that highlighted the environmental performance opportunities that exist for wine production. The rest of the day’s schedule was held at MacMurray Ranch. There was a panel that featured presentations and discussions about Gallo of Sonoma’s sustainability (...) management systems, the Benziger Family Winery’s Biodynamic vineyard practices, and the application of environmental management systems in the wine industry and other industries. (shrink)

This article describes and analyzes the design and functioning of the Statistical Ethics System (SETE) in Colombia’s National Statistical Office. It presents the methodology and general process of planning and implementation of the System, supported by a conceptual analysis of the requirements for an ethical functioning of official statistics. The general objective of the article is to make a practical contribution to the understanding of conceptual and practical features that ought to be considered in the implementation of an ethical system (...) in the operation of the public sector, particularly in the area of the production of official statistics. The text is divided into five parts. In the first part, we make a general introduction to the ethical value of official statistics. In the second and third parts, we make a presentation and analysis of the principles and risks that were selected as the basic ethical framework for the production of official statistics at the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE). The fourth section presents the conceptual and practical bases of how SETE operates. The fifth section we present some concluding remarks. (shrink)

Distinct sources of stress have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Particularly, fear is expected to generate significant psychological burden on individuals and influence on either unsafe behavior that may hinder recovery efforts or virus-mitigating behaviors. However, little is known about the properties of measures to capture them in research and clinical settings. To resolve this gap, we evaluated the psychometric properties of a novel measure of fear of illness and viruses and tested its predictive value for future development of distress. (...) We extracted a random sample of 450 Chilean adult participants from a large cross-sectional survey panel and invited to participate in this intensive longitudinal study for 35 days. Of these, 163 ended up enrolling in the study after the demanding nature of the measurement schedule was clearly explained to them. For this final sample, we calculated different Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) to evaluate the preliminary proposed structure for the instrument. Complementarily, we conducted a content analysis of the items to qualitatively extract its latent structure, which was also subject to empirical test via CFA. Results indicated that the original structure did not fit the data well; however, the new proposed structure based on the content analysis did. Overall, the modified instrument showed good reliability through all subscales both by its internal consistency with Cronbach’s alphas ranging from 0.814 to 0.913, and with test–retest correlations ranging from 0.715 to 0.804. Regarding its convergent validity, individuals who scored higher in fears tended to also score higher in depressive and posttraumatic stress symptoms at baseline. Furthermore, higher fears at baseline predicted a higher score in posttraumatic stress symptomatology 7 days later. These results provide evidence for the validity, reliability, and predictive performance of the scale. As the scale is free and multidimensional potentially not circumscribed to COVID-19, it might work as a step toward understanding the psychological impact of current and future pandemics, or further life-threatening health situations of similar characteristics. Limitations, practical implications, and future directions for research are discussed. (shrink)

A 68-year-old patient who suffered from gastric cancer diagnosed 8 months earlier presented with multiple peritoneal and hepatic metastasis, despite several rounds of chemo- and radiotherapy. After admission to hospital, his general condition quickly became severely compromised. He was nearly emaciated, despite being on partial parenteral feeding. Four years earlier, due to a cardiac arrhythmia that was refractory to medication, the patient had a cardiac pacemaker implanted, regulated to go off at frequencies of below 70 beats per minute. Given the (...) patient's terminal situation, the team started developing some doubts about the pacemaker's effects during his dying process. The patient had mentioned his intention to donate his pacemaker after his death, but had not asked for its deactivation. The specialists were not sure about the effect of the pacemaker in unnecessarily prolonging the patient's final hour. Nevertheless, they opposed deactivation, which they considered ethically uncertain. The family, who had been initially for the deactivation, decided against it. The patient's condition was progressively deteriorating, as he was falling into a state of sopor and, later, into a coma. (shrink)

El propósito de este escrito es mostrar la complejidad de la lectura que Quevedo realiza del estoicismo, como representante del barroco hispano, en el contexto de la historia de la recepción de esta escuela antigua en los siglos XVI y XVII. Para ello retomamos la tesis de P. F. Moreau sobre las tres grandes etapas en la historia de la recepción del estoicismo (la humanista, la neoestoica y la crítica moderna) con el objetivo de aportar nuevos argumentos, extraídos del (...) análisis del miedo a la muerte y el temor de Dios en La cuna y la sepultura, que permitan precisar qué posición singular ocupa Quevedo, como representante del neoestoicismo cristianizado, en el contexto de estas tres grandes fases mencionadas. (shrink)

En este ensayo se revisará el legado de Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas en algunos autores hispanoamericanos cuya característica común es un dominio superlativo del español: Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, Juan José Arreola y, por último, en un gran escritor de literatura y crítica que abre una veta para valorar la obra de Quevedo, la cual no fue explorada por los anteriores: José Pascual Buxó.