Graphical AbstractScientists should learn to communicate effectively with their colleagues through long-term, sustained training instead of ad hoc, one-off “interventions” that may or may not occur during graduate school or postdoctoral work. Since such training may place unreasonable demands on research advisors, institutions should create career opportunities for “peer-peer communication teachers.”.

The Purpose in Life Test is a measure of purpose in life widely used in many cultures and countries; however, cross-cultural assessments are scarce. The present study aimed to evaluate the cross-cultural measurement invariance of the PIL in the general population of seven Latin American countries. A total of 4306 people participated, selected by non-probabilistic convenience sampling, where Uruguay has the highest mean age ; while Ecuador has the lowest mean age. Furthermore, in each country, there is a higher proportion (...) of women than men. Using Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the factorial structure does not show evidence of invariance among the included countries. However, based on the Multi-Group Factor Analysis Alignment, there is evidence that a three-dimensional structure of the PIL is the same in the participating countries. Results based on item response theory indicate that most PIL items can significantly differentiate responses according to the level of life purpose. In addition, people with low life purpose will tend to choose the lower response alternatives on the PIL; while people with higher life purpose will choose higher response alternatives. The findings indicate that the PIL has the potential to increase knowledge about how people conceive and experience their purpose in life in different countries. (shrink)

Se muestra la necesidad de replantear la unidad teórico-práctica de la concepción aristotélica, desde la "crisis" actual del sentido de la existencia humana, atestiguada por el pensamiento posmoderno. Concepción especulativa hegeliana: éste es un hito que permite diferenciar entre modernidad y contemporaneidad, limitando el alcance de la crítica posmoderna. La realización especulativa de la libertad del espíritu en su autonomos y en su autos-arché es planteada como la nueva formulación de la "vida virtuosa" y de la unidad intrínseca entre theoria (...) y praxis en el pensamiento aristotélico. (shrink)

Esta obra se concentra en cuatro temas cruciales de la formación de docentes, tanto antes como durante el servicio y en la enseñanza en diferentes áreas y niveles educativos. En primer lugar, se aborda el asunto de las creencias que los docentes tienen sobre el proceso educativo, las cuales parecen influir en la práctica profesional que estos desarrollan y, por lo tanto, deberían recibir la atención explícita de los procesos de formación de docentes que deseen promover prácticas específicas. El segundo (...) tema de la obra es la relación entre la formación de docentes y la política pública que la rige. En particular, se analizan las reformas curriculares implementadas por varias licenciaturas en universidades privadas colombianas, en respuesta a reformas a la normatividad sobre las condiciones de calidad que a las que deben ajustarse todas las licenciaturas del país. El tercer tema analizado es en qué medida los docentes en educación superior van más allá del dominio de su saber disciplinar atribuyendo importancia a la pedagogía, la didáctica y la práctica reflexiva en su propia práctica docente. Finalmente, se discuten aspectos de la formación de docentes relacionados con los procesos vividos y los retos encontrados por los docentes al entrar en la profesión, su socialización en la comunidad docente, sus identidades como maestros y su motivación para ser docentes. Vale la pena señalar que las contribuciones a este libro comparten el uso de metodologías cualitativas y presentan los resultados de historias de vida, entrevistas, observaciones, y análisis documentales, entre otros. (shrink)

Civility is formed by social norms that guide our behavior and allow us to interact appropriately with others. These norms affect everyone and are learned through the socialization process. However, in the same process, people also learn gender norms that dictate how men and women should behave, leading to gender stereotypes and differentiated behavioral characteristics. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between gender and civility, and how we react to those who behave uncivilly given their gender. (...) The results of Study 1 showed that even in a fictional and gender-neutral society, uncivil behaviors were associated with stereotypically masculine characteristics, and those who behaved uncivilly were dehumanized. In Study 2, gender differences were observed in incivility. Women were harsher when facing uncivil transgressors than men, especially if the transgressor was another woman. Our findings support the notion that gender norms are applied to civility, leading those supposedly equal social norms to unequal perceptions and evaluations. (shrink)

Although the advantages of flight at high altitude were early recognized, so also were the physiological problems standing in the way of its realization. The idea of surmounting such problems by means of a pressurized cabin was advocated as early as 1909, while the first attempt to translate the concept into actuality occurred in 1921. Neither it nor several successive attempts enjoyed any real success until a project launched by the U. S. Air Corps in 1935 produced a breakthrough aircraft (...) designated the XC-35. The major reason for the favorable termination of that venture was the thoroughness of the engineering involved. But it is equally notable that this was the first instance in the age of powered flight where there was an active collaboration between the scientists and engineers, a rather curious circumstance in view of the fact that the achievement of altitude record-setting balloon flights in the nineteenth century had owed a great deal to an interconnection of aeronauts and scientists' laboratories. This paper focuses on the physiological investigations which informed the XC-35 engineers while at the same time bringing into being a new aeromedical laboratory taking the first small step toward turning aeromedicine into space medicine. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza la relación entre dos autores, Lord Acton y Balmes, en lo que entendemos que ha sido la gran cuestión de la política moderna: la nación y el problema del nacionalismo. Se citan los textos estrechamente relacionados con el tema y se han descartado aquellos más generales o, en el caso de Balmes, de carácter más dogmático o teológico. En el caso del autor español se han seleccionado sus escritos políticos aparecidos en los diferentes medios de prensa en (...) los que colaboró a lo largo de su prolífica carrera. Ambos autores trataron de superar por elevación la dialéctica absolutismo-liberalismo, y propusieron, cada uno a su manera, un modelo de Monarquía Constitucional que no cediese ni al nacionalismo, ni al autoritarismo. Asumieron como propias ideas renovadoras acerca de la libertad política, adaptaron a sus circunstancias las formas políticas propias del federalismo estadounidense, y defendieron la tradición, la religión y el Estado frente a los que ellos entendían que eran las dos grandes amenazas de su época que crecían al amparo del nacionalismo: el individualismo racionalista y el autoritarismo estatalista. (shrink)

La búsqueda de justificación epistémica para los presupuestos metodológicos y axiológicos más básicos de la ciencia ha de enfrentarse al trilema de Agrippa. Se argumenta que la regresión al infinito -aun si esta regresión es solo potencial- y la circularidad no son las mejores alternativas del trilema y que el mejor disyunto es un dogmatismo minimalista, siendo uno de sus dogmas el siguiente condicional: Si nuestros presupuestos metodológicos y axiológicos más básicos de carácter científico fuesen los correctos, entonces las teorías (...) científicas seleccionadas por estos presupuestos serían probable, o aproximadamente, verdaderas. The search of epistemic justification for the most basic methodological and axiological presuppositions of science has to deal with Agrippa's trilemma.It is argued that infinite regress - even if it is only a potential regress - and circularity are not the best alternatives of the trilemma and that the best disjunct is a minimalist dogmatism, with the following conditional, as one of its dogmas: If our most basic methodological and axiological scientific presuppositions were the correct ones, then the scientific theories selected by these presuppositions would be the probably, or the approximately, true ones. (shrink)

In this essay, a brief analysis of the diplomatic efforts to achieve an accord in re- lation to the climatic change process is made. Particularly, it will analyze the two past Climate Summits (Copenhagen and Cancun). It emphasizes the growing social articulation of climatic politics. Finally, it aims to the birth of a new global responsibility of societies in relation to the human relation towards the planet. Also, it explores the impact of this responsibility on the environment global changes.

1. The Bundle Theory I shall discuss is a theory about the nature of substances or concrete particulars, like apples, chairs, atoms, stars and people. The point of the Bundle Theory is to avoid undesirable entities like substrata that allegedly constitute particulars. The version of the Bundle Theory I shall discuss takes particulars to be entirely constituted by the universals they instantiate.' Thus particulars are said to be just bundles of universals. Together with the claim that it is necessary that (...) particulars have constituents, the fundamental claim of the Bundle Theory is: (BT) Necessarily, for every particular x and every entity y, y constitutes x if and only ify is a universal and x instantiates y. 2 The standard and supposedly devastating objection to the Bundle Theory is that it entails or is committed to a false version of the Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles (Armstrong 1978: 91, Loux 1998: 107), namely: (Pll) Necessarily, for all particulars x and y and every universal z, if z is instantiated by x if and only if z is instantiated byy, then x is numerically identical with y. The most famous counterexample to the Identity of Indiscernibles is that put forward by Max Black, consisting of a world where there are only two iron spheres two miles apart from each other, having the same diameter, temperature, colour, shape, size, etc (Black 1952: 156). Let us from now on think of the properties of the spheres in this world as universals. The possibility of this world, which I shall hereafter refer to as 'Black's world', makes (Pll) false.' And according to common philosophical opinion this means that the Bundle Theory is false.. (shrink)

A sociedade não se iniciou com a civilização grega, porém fundamentou a civilização ocidental. Pretende-se fazer uma reflexão sobre as questões econômicas do mundo antigo, quando Aristóteles anteviu crescente inserção mercantilista na sociedade e tratará a polis com uma grande autonomia humana. A sociedade grega clássica está centrada na cidade-estado, a polis, a qual era, para os gregos, o estágio final e completo da vida social, a única forma possível de existência civilizada. O conceito aristotélico de economia como ação/política do (...) “cuidar”, como a ciência que busca o melhor uso das riquezas destinadas a manutenção e aperfeiçoamento da vida social, auxilia o mundo moderno à construção de um pensamento econômico. (shrink)

The concept of “self-realization” plays a central role in philosophy, since it summarizes the idea that a good life is a flourishing life, that is, an existence in which a person makes the best of what she is. A long tradition has understood this in terms of actualizing one’s potential or fulfilling one’s highest and most worthy aspirations. The aim of this paper is to analyze Hegel’s Logic and Philosophy of Right, in order to show that they outline an alternative (...) and valuable account of self-realization that conceives of human flourishing as tied to the flourishing of the world. (shrink)

Phillips & Silverstein (P&S, 2003) propose that NMDA-receptor dysfunction may be the fundamental neurobiological mechanism underlying and associating impaired holistic perception and cognitive coordination with schizophrenic psychopathology. We discuss how the P&S hypothesis shares different aspects of the weak central coherence account of autism from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. Specifically, we believe that neither those persons with autism nor those with schizophrenia integrate visuo-perceptual information efficiently, resulting in incongruous internal representations of their external world. However, although NMDA-hypofunction may be (...) responsible for perceptual impairments in schizophrenia and possibly autism, we suggest that it is highly unlikely that NMDA-hypofunction is specifically responsible for the autistic behavioral symptomology, as described by P&S in their target article. (shrink)

The complete description of the interaction between an external electromagnetic field and a charged particle causing it to radiate is one of the most fundamental problems in classical electrodynamics. Here we provide a simple coupled model that describes via the Lagrangian of the physical system the full radiation reaction process resulting from the particle–field interactions which simulate the electromagnetic ones. The particle and field evolution equations obtained from the Lagrangian are studied as an initial value problem giving rise to the (...) particle's radiation reaction equation, which includes the complete interaction with the field. Using stability theory we analyze this equation and prove that every solution is global uniform asymptotically stable, evidencing that the particle coupled to the field radiates. The model proves to be interesting, for it clearly illustrates the particle–field interaction process and shows the radiation's origin. (shrink)

O recrutamento de diplomatas pelo Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros português é levado a cabo por intermédio de um concurso público. O formato desse concurso tem variado ao longo do tempo. Muito pouco é conhecido quanto à progressão diacrónica desse formato. Parece, no entanto, haver um consenso geral tácito de que os Concursos não são transparentes, e um artigo recente assevera-o explicitamente no que diz respeito ao período do Estado Novo. O presente estudo mostra que, pelo contrário – pelo menos ao (...) nível do enquadramento legal a que estão sujeitos – os concursos têm vindo a evoluir lentamente na direcção de uma cada vez maior abertura. Mostra também em que sentido tais representações são compreensíveis, uma vez que o design geral do concurso mantém claros traços que apontam claramente na direcção de uma “reprodução simples” do “corpo” de funcionários que visa recrutar. Os concursos são assim encarados enquanto um rito cívico complexo de iniciação que tem sobrevivido tant bien que mal no quadro de um Estado moderno. (shrink)

Background and objectives: Definitions of medical futility, offered by healthcare professionals, bioethicists and other experts, have been rigorously debated by many investigators, but the perceptions of patients of futility have been explored only by a few. Patients were allowed to discuss their concerns about end-of-life care, so that their ideas about treatment futility or utility could be extrapolated by us.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with 30 elderly people who were receiving outpatient care in a large, (...) urban Veterans Affairs medical centre in the US. Each of their healthcare providers was also interviewed. Participants were asked to consider four terms commonly used in advance directive forms and to discuss what these terms meant to them. Audiotapes of the open-ended interviews were transcribed and responses were coded and categorised by constant comparison, a commonly used qualitative method.Results: The following four factors were taken into account by the participants when discussing end-of-life interventions and outcomes: expected quality of life; emotional and financial costs of treatment; likelihood of treatment success; and expected effect on longevity.Conclusions: Although the terms “utility” or “futility” were not generally used by the participants, segments of speech indicating their perceptions of these terms were identified. Treatment was not always discussed in the same way by patients and providers, but seemed to reflect the same four concerns. Therefore, it may be fruitful for providers to focus on these concerns when discussing end-of-life treatment options with their patients. (shrink)

This article undertakes a deconstructive reading of astrobiology’s search for extraterrestrial life. Taking its lead from Derrida’s ‘White Mythology’, it explores ‘metaphor in the text of astrobiology’—and includes within the astrobiological ‘text’ not only scientific publications and work on astrobiology in the philosophy of science, but also ‘life detection technologies’. I situate astrobiology in the tradition of a metaphysical analogy that goes back through the enlightenment and early modern astronomy to the ancient Atomists’ notion of the ‘plurality of worlds’. This (...) analogy, which constitutes an identification of life with being and therefore serves as the conceptual basis for the notion that life must exist on other worlds, experiences a mutation in the middle of the twentieth century when molecular biology refigures life in terms of a scriptural metaphor as text. The result is an aporia whose logic Derrida formalised in ‘White Mythology’. (shrink)