El autor de este trabajo expone un diagnóstico crítico de Europa apoyándose en la lectura de tres libros diferentes. El triunfo del nihilismo se levantaría, a su juicio, sobre el olvido de tres fundamentos íntimamente conectados entre sí: la Filosofía, el Cristianismo y Europa.

A pesar de las «discrepancias radicales» entre ambos autores, este ensayo muestra cómo fueron leídas e interpretadas las Reflexiones sobre la violencia de G. Sorel por Ortega y Gasset. Sin embargo, una mirada crítica nos ofrece cómo el éthos orteguiano y el recurso a la huelga de G. Sorel son estructuras distintas, pero convergentes en sus filosofías. Asimismo descubrimos la misma reflexión en torno al cristianismo y al Renacimiento como metáforas culturales para comprender el desarrollo vital de la razón histórica (...) en épocas de crisis como las que vivieron los dos pensadores. (shrink)

Esta obra ofrece al lector un amplio relato de las enseñanzas de la Conferencia Episcopal Española a lo largo de todos los años posteriores al Concilio Vaticano II. Las enseñanzas de los Obispos se presentan según su temática, antecedentes y objetivos, y en su contexto social. Esta presentación permite al lector tener pleno conocimiento de la interpretación que los obispos hicieron de los acontecimientos históricos de la época. Por último, se añaden algunas observaciones críticas para comparar las ideas de los (...) obispos sobre los laicos con la doctrina del Concilio. (shrink)

In the digital age, the global software development sector has been a forerunner in implementing new ways and configurations for remote teamwork using information and communication technologies on a widespread basis. Crises and technological advances have influenced each other to bring about changes in the ways of working. In the 70’s of the last century, in the middle of the so-called oil crisis, the concept of teleworking was defined using remote computer equipment to access office equipment and thus avoid moving (...) around using traditional vehicles. Then from the 90s, with the advent of communications and the widespread use of the Internet, the first virtual work teams were implemented in software development companies that already had some of the important characteristics needed to work in this way, such as, cultural diversity, characterized tasks, geographical distribution of members, communication, interdependence of tasks, leadership, cohesion, empowerment, confidence, virtuality. This manuscript groups the main factors into different models proposed by the literature and also analyzes the results of a study conducted in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis on 317 software development teams that had to work in virtual teams. The results of the quantitative methodology with structural equation modeling based on variance using the partial least squares route method are analyzed. The results of the research focus on some determinants that can directly affect the performance of the virtual team. A first determinant is communication in relation to the tasks. The second is trust in relation to leadership, empowerment and cohesion. The results of virtual teams provide information that can serve as a basis for future research lines for the implementation of virtual work strategies in post-pandemic work. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Constructivist Model Building: Empirical Examples From Mathematics Education” by Catherine Ulrich, Erik S. Tillema, Amy J. Hackenberg & Anderson Norton. Upshot: I argue that radical constructivism poses a series of deep methodological constraints on educational research. We focus on the work of Ulrich et al. to illustrate the practical implications of these constraints.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the effects of two intervention programs, high-intensity interval training and moderate-intensity training, on anxiety, depression, stress, and resilience during the confinement caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 in healthy adults.Methods: A total of 67 adults who participated were randomly assigned to two groups: HIIT and MIT groups. The MIT group had to perform a home-based intervention based on aerobic exercises, whereas the HIIT group had to perform a home-based intervention based on HIIT exercises. The (...) two groups had to complete the same physical exercise volume, 40 min per session during the confinement period. Depression, anxiety, stress, and resilience were assessed before and after the intervention.Results: Results showed that HIIT and MIT significantly reduced the stress, anxiety, and depression as well as increase the resilience. Moreover, the improvements obtained in the HIIT group seem to be greater than those of the MIT group in depression.Conclusions: HIIT and MIT decreased anxiety, stress, and depression as well as increased resilience during the COVID-19 confinement. In addition, the HIIT intervention seemed to be more beneficial to reduce depression than the MIT intervention. (shrink)

We argue for an account of chemical reactivities as chancy propensities, in accordance with the ‘complex nexus of chance’ defended by one of us in the past (Suárez, 2017, 2020). Reactivities are typically quantified as proportions, and an expression such as “A + B → C” does not entail that under the right conditions some amounts of A and B react to give the amount of C that theoretically would correspond to the stoichiometry of the reaction. Instead, what is produced (...) is a fraction α < 1 of this theoretical amount, and the corresponding percentage is usually known as the yield, which expresses the relative preponderance of its reaction. This is then routinely tested in a laboratory against the observed actual yields for the different reactions. Thus, on our account, reactivities ambiguously refer to three quantities at once. They first refer to the underlying propensities effectively acting in the reaction mechanisms, and which in ‘chemical chemistry’ (Schummer, 1998) are commonly represented by means of Lewis structures. Besides, reactivities represent the probabilities that these propensities give rise to, for any amount of the reactants to combine as prescribed. This last notion is hence best understood as a single case chance and corresponds to a theoretical stoichiometric yield. Finally, reactivities represent the actual yields observed in experimental runs, which account for and provide the requisite evidence for / against both the mechanisms and single case chances ascribed. (shrink)

We argue for an account of chemical reactivities as chancy propensities, in accordance with the ‘complex nexus of chance’ defended by one of us in the past. Reactivities are typically quantified as proportions, and an expression such as “A + B → C” does not entail that under the right conditions some given amounts of A and B react to give the mass of C that theoretically corresponds to the stoichiometry of the reaction. Instead, what is produced is a fraction (...) α < 1 of this theoretical amount, and the corresponding percentage is usually known as the yield, which expresses the relative preponderance of its reaction. This is then routinely tested in a laboratory against the observed actual yields for the different reactions. Thus, on our account, reactivities ambiguously refer to three quantities at once. They first refer to the underlying propensities effectively acting in the reaction mechanisms, which in ‘chemical chemistry’ (Schummer in Hyle 4:129–162, 1998) are commonly represented by means of Lewis structures. Besides, reactivities represent the probabilities that these propensities give rise to, for any amount of the reactants to combine as prescribed. This last notion is hence best understood as a single case chance and corresponds to a theoretical stoichiometric yield. Finally, reactivities represent the actual yields observed in experimental runs, which account for and provide the requisite evidence for/against both the mechanisms and single case chances ascribed. (shrink)

I put forward an inferentialist account of Lewis structures (LSs). In this view, the role of LSs is not to realistically depict molecules, but instead to allow surrogate reasoning and inference in chemistry. I also show that the usage of LSs is a central part of a person’s identity as a chemist, as it is defined within educational identity theory. Taking these conclusions together, I argue that the inferentialist approach to LSs and chemistry identity theory can be studied in parallel, (...) as two complementary sides of the same research programme. (shrink)

This paper seeks to highlight the methodological contributions developed by Michel Foucault in regard to a critical history. We propose a tour through various passages of the thinker´s work, with the aim of bashing the main elements that allegedly make up his method. From this exercise we maintain that, in order to record the existence of a Foucauldian method, it is necessary to reproblematize this notion beyond the displacements around the well-known three moments of his work -archeological/genealogical/ethical-, reorienting the look (...) towards the critical tension possible to peer around the unique place that occupies the question of history in his work. The novelty of our proposal is to point out that, beyond the well-known substantial contributions foreshadowed around Foucault's conceptual rig, his work must be understood as an eminently practical historical-philosophical methodology, aimed at disarticulating the canonical principles that legitimize knowledge produced by the historiographic method, thus opening a region of indiscernibility and rarity in historical practice that, we maintain, can be thought of in the vicinity of a parahistory. In sum, we propose the thesis that the displacement in Foucault's work takes on a singular power from the introduction of a strategic artifice ― anonymous ―, aimed at forcing a fold of history on itself, showing how historiographical plots actively tax to sustain and legitimize the regimes of knowledge, power and truth present in them. (shrink)

El presente texto busca desarrollar una reflexión filosófica respecto de las posibles relaciones entre la noción de identidad y las formas de gobierno contemporáneas. A partir de un breve análisis sobre los principales desarrollos de la noción, se busca tensionar el campo de comprensión habitual y plantear un determinado modo en que esta puede pensarse como un engranaje epistemológico-ético respecto de los modos en que los individuos son llamados a nombrarse y reconocerse dentro de los límites impuestos por una cartografía (...) política. La tesis que sostiene este escrito dice relación con que la categoría de individuo moderno no es sostenible sin una adscripción a un orden de los nombres que tiende al autogobierno en base a la apelación de un ideal ético de correspondencia consigo mismo. (shrink)

The linguafranca, or Mediterranean pidgin, was spoken by sailors and merchants that sailed the Mediterranean Sea during centuries. This pidgin borrowed terms from languages such as: Castilian and Catalan, French and Provencal (Occitanian language), Italian, Genovese, and Venetian. Moreover, words of Arabic and Neogreek origins were added to al1 this common mass. So, this lingua is a great interesting resource to deal with the study of the Spanish naval histoy in the Mediterranean Sea from 12" to 13" century, when its (...) usage started to vanish. From 16" century on, it started to be spoken in America. This common language, between Romance language nations, only uses the infinitive verb for al1 tenses and modes of verb's conjugation. Nowadays, there are terms that still remain in sailors' language such as wind names: leveche, jaloque, maestral or mistral, tramontana; meteorological phenomena names: bórea or boria; and nomenclature for typical crafts: paramola, escálamo, car, batallol, laud or llaüt, latino. (shrink)

Does the board of directors influence cost of debt financing? This study of a sample of Spanish listed companies during the period 2004-2007 provides some evidence about the question. The results suggest that two board attributes - director ownership and board activity - appear to influence in the risk assessment of debtholders because of their ability to reduce agency cost and information asymmetry. We also find a non-linear relationship between board size and cost of debt, suggesting that from certain levels (...) the benefits of large boards may be outweighed by the cost of poorer communication and increased decision-making time. (shrink)

Diversas evidencias parecen indicar que, durante la comprensión oral, el procesamiento del habla se realiza a partir de la información verbal auditiva y de la información viso-gestual proveniente del interlocutor. En este marco, se evaluó el tiempo y la precisión de respuestas de sujetos oyentes en una tarea de lectura labial con el patrón acústico suprimido. En ella, 25 participantes adultos, sin diagnóstico de patologías lingüísticas o cognitivas ni discapacidad auditiva o visual, debían distinguir si estaban frente a una palabra (...) del español a partir de la visualización de su articulación. Para la tarea se construyeron 240 estímulos, divididos en tres grupos de 80 ‘Palabras’ del español, 80 ‘Pseudopalabras’ del español y 80 ‘No-Palabras’, presentados en forma aleatoria. Los resultados respecto del tiempo de respuesta indicaron que las ‘Palabras’ (m=717,6ms) se reconocen con una velocidad menor que las ‘Pseudopalabras’ (m=809,5ms) y las ‘No-Palabras’ (7633,7ms); mientras que las ‘Pseudopalabras’ demoraron más en ser respondidas que las ‘No-Palabras’. Por su parte, en los resultados de precisión los estímulos presentaron el siguiente patrón de reconocimiento: ‘Palabras’<‘Pseudopalabras’<‘No-Palabras’ (correspondientes a un 59,89%, 62,5% y 86,3%, respectivamente). Del mismo modo, se encontró evidencia robusta de la relación entre el tipo de estímulo presentado y el acierto/desacierto de las respuestas, aunque el modelo indica que la condición ‘No-Palabra’ es reconocida con mayor facilidad y que la diferencia entre ‘Palabras’ y las ‘Pseudopalabras’ no es relevante. Asimismo, se observó una relación entre la menor velocidad y el desacierto en las respuestas. Estos datos corroboran la hipótesis de la integración de información proveniente de la percepción visual y el procesamiento del lenguaje, al mismo tiempo que permiten proyectar trabajos futuros con evidencias electrofisiológicas. (shrink)

There exist two notions of equivalence of behavior between states of a Labelled Markov Process (LMP): state bisimilarity and event bisimilarity. The first one can be considered as an appropriate generalization to continuous spaces of Larsen and Skou’s probabilistic bisimilarity, whereas the second one is characterized by a natural logic. C. Zhou expressed state bisimilarity as the greatest fixed point of an operator that there is such a process with an uncountable Zhou ordinal.