ABSTRACTMaría Zambrano's biggest contribution to intellectual history is, without a doubt, her poetic reason; her unique attempt to overcome the limiting coordinates of the framework of rationality established by the Enlightenment. Having spent forty-five years in exile, the relevance of this Republican thinker has only been acknowledged in recent decades. Since then, the political content of her early work, as well as her engagement with the Republic's cause prior to and during the Spanish Civil War are well known. Nevertheless, although (...) Zambrano still wrote some political books after the Civil War, most notably, Persona y democracia, the political component of her thought after this period has passed largely unnoticed. This article intends to take a wider approach to Zambrano's political engagement by exploring the political significance of her poetic reason. Here I contend, first, that poetic reason, far from being an isolated attempt at developing an alternative rationality, is actually in line with the critique of instrumental reason proposed by the Frankfurt School and, second, that, in fact, there are meaningful parallels between poetic reason and Frankfurtian Critical Theory. Thus, the purpose of this article is to explore such parallels and their significance in revealing the political dimension of Zambrano's thought. (shrink)

Este libro es un homenaje a la trayectoria intelectual y académica de la profesora María Teresa López de la Vieja, Catedrática emérita de la Universidad de Salamanca. En él se trazan algunos de los caminos que, con su obra, nos invita a transitar. El volumen recoge contribuciones de colegas de varias nacionalidades y procedentes de diversos ámbitos de reflexión que le son afines: la filosofía moral y política, la literatura, la teoría de la argumentación, los estudios feministas, las éticas aplicadas, (...) la bioética. Los capítulos que componen este libro dan voz a varias generaciones de investigadoras e investigadores que han acompañado y acompañan su andadura académica y que aquí dialogan con ella haciendo propias sus preocupaciones intelectuales. Con su participación contribuyen al justo reconocimiento de su dedicación a la labor docente e investigadora. (shrink)

RESUMEN El trabajo tiene como objetivo revelar la contribución social de médicos camagüeyanos negros a la educación católica, a partir de su relación con los colegios regentados por la Iglesia, en un contexto marcado por desigualdades raciales. Se utilizaron métodos teóricos como la revisión documental y bibliográfica, también fueron aplicadas historias de vida y entrevistas. La investigación se centra en el quehacer asistencial de médicos camagüeyanos, vinculados a las Hermanas Oblatas de la Providencia, en particular a los colegios a cargo (...) de estas monjas negras, que educaban a niñas y niños de ese color de piel. Se pudo esclarecer quiénes fueron los doctores más vinculados a esas instituciones y establecer cuál fue su labor en ellas en las décadas del 40- 50 del siglo XX. Queda valorada su contribución social en la asistencia brindada a ese segmento poblacional y al significado de esta sin la mediación de prejuicios raciales. ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is reveal the social contribution of black Camagüey doctors to the Catholic education from it relation with the schools occupied by the church in a context marked by racials ineguality. It put in practical use theoric methods such as documentary an bibliographical revisión; it also were aplyed life history and entreviews. The research it focus in the assistance job of the Camaguey doctor linked to the Sisters Providence Oblates, especially the schools of these black nuns who give education to black girls and boys. The paper show who were the doctors most linked to these religious institution and to situate their Jobs in these schools in the ´40 and ´50 of the 20 th century. Their social contribution is valved in this type of population and the meaning of this contribution with out racial prejudice. (shrink)

El método clínico surge desde las relaciones humanas más primitivas y aún cuando se encuentra en constante evolución no se consigue su adecuada aplicación. El estudio de este método científico constituye uno de los temas más importantes que guían la praxis médica, ostenta ciertos caracteres que se entrelazan dialécticamente imposibles de desligar, centrados esencialmente en la relación médico-paciente con el objetivo de arribar al diagnóstico de una enfermedad determinada, por lo cual, se brindan algunas consideraciones teóricas a partir del análisis (...) de sus conceptualizaciones y atributos más significativos y se elabora una definición de método clínico. The clinical method faces constant evolution, in spite of the issues that affect its application. The study of this scientific method constitutes one of the most important topics that lead medical praxis. It entails several characteristics dialectically intertwined that focus mainly on the doctor-patient relation for the diagnosis of a given disease. The objective of this article is to provide some theoretical considerations based on the analysis of its main concepts and attributes. (shrink)

Huge losses and serious threats to ecosystems are common consequences of forest fires. This work describes a forest fire controller based on fuzzy logic and decision-making methods aiming at enhancing forest fire prevention, detection, and fighting systems. In the proposal, the environmental monitoring of several dynamic risk factors is performed with wireless sensor networks and analysed with the proposed fuzzy-based controller. With respect to this, meteorological variables, polluting gases and the oxygen level are measured in real time to estimate the (...) existence of forest fire risks in the short-term and to detect the recent occurrence of fire outbreaks over different forest areas. Besides, the Analytic Hierarchy Process method is used to determine the level of fire spread, and, when necessary, environmental alerts are sent by a Web service and received by a mobile application. For this purpose, integrity, confidentiality, and authenticity of environmental information and alerts are protected with implementations of Lamport’s authentication scheme, Diffie-Lamport signature, and AES-CBC block cipher. (shrink)

The use of wireless sensor networks and the Internet of things to detect forest fire outbreaks may help to reduce the response time and avoid natural disasters. This work proposes the deployment of WSN to enhance the real-time monitoring of dynamic variables such as polluting gases, temperature or the presence of fire flames by infrared. In addition, the activation of forest fire alerts if environmental status may involve evidence of a recent fire outbreak. A fuzzy-based controller is implemented to manage (...) the uncertainty related to estimating forest fire occurrence and dynamic update of fuzzy sets is developed to distinguish usual and unusual environmental conditions of every monitored forest area. Merkle trees, AES and hash functions are considered to protect the integrity of environmental data. (shrink)

Status anxiety, the constant concern about individuals’ position on the social ladder, negatively affects social cohesion, health, and wellbeing. Given previous findings showing that status anxiety is associated with economic inequality, we aimed in this research to test this association experimentally. A cross-sectional study was run in order to discard confounding effects of the relationship between perceived economic inequality and status anxiety, and to explore the mediating role of a competitive climate. Then we predicted that people assigned to a condition (...) of high inequality would perceive more status anxiety in their social context, and they would themselves report higher status anxiety. Thus, in an experimental study PEI was manipulated. In Study 1, PEI uniquely predicted status anxiety, and perceived competitiveness mediated the relationship. In Study 2 PEI increased perceived contextual status anxiety, a specific form of perceived competitiveness based on socioeconomic status. Moreover, preliminary evidence of an indirect effect was found from PEI to personal status anxiety, through perceived contextual status anxiety. These preliminary findings provide experimental evidence for the effects of economic inequality on status anxiety and the mechanism involved. Economic inequality makes people feel that they live in a society where they are constantly concerned and competing with each other for their SES. These results could have important implications as health and wellbeing could be promoted by reducing economic inequalities and the competitive and materialistic environments of our societies. (shrink)

One winter morning, the two of us—both postdoctoral fellows in medical humanities and bioethics—gathered with a handful of reproductive science graduate students in the lab to watch a demonstration on making alginate beads. Due to their three-dimensional nature, the beads are capable of holding ovarian follicles—the beads act as though they were a small ovary. The scientists in the lab have managed to mature the follicles maintained in the beads into eggs, fertilize these eggs, and produce the birth of live (...) mice. This research was begun in an effort to develop a means of gathering ovarian follicles from young human cancer patients before they commence cancer treatment that may result in their infertility, thus .. (shrink)

Rare neuromuscular diseases are a group of pathologies characterized by a progressive loss of muscular strength, atrophy, fatigue, and other muscle-related symptoms, which affect quality of life levels. The low prevalence, high geographical dispersion and disability of these individuals involve difficulties in accessing health and social care services. Teleassistance is presented as a useful tool to perform psychosocial interventions in these situations. The main aim of this research is to assess the effects of a teleassistance psychosocial program on the QoL (...) levels of people with RNMDs who have different levels of disability. A sample of 73 participants was divided into an experimental group, which participated in the intervention, and a control wait list group. QoL was evaluated through the SIP and the SF-36, and disability through the WHO-DAS II. The participants with a moderate to severe level of disability were those who most benefited from the intervention. The results also revealed that the psychosocial teleassistance program was suitable to improve physical and psychosocial aspects of people suffering from a rare neuromuscular disease with a moderate level of disability, but just psychosocial aspects in those with a severe level of disability. (shrink)

Researchers from diverse disciplines, including organismal and cellular physiology, sports science, human nutrition, evolution and ecology, have sought to understand the causes and consequences of the surprising variation in metabolic rate found among and within individual animals of the same species. Research in this area has been hampered by differences in approach, terminology and methodology, and the context in which measurements are made. Recent advances provide important opportunities to identify and address the key questions in the field. By bringing together (...) researchers from different areas of biology and biomedicine, we describe and evaluate these developments and the insights they could yield, highlighting the need for more standardisation across disciplines. We conclude with a list of important questions that can now be addressed by developing a common conceptual and methodological toolkit for studies on metabolic variation in animals. (shrink)

When one thinks about organ transplantation, the organs that usually come to mind are the heart, or possibly the kidney, the most commonly transplanted organ (UNOS 2008). Transplantations are generally regarded as necessary to the life of the person receiving the transplant or to physiologically improving that life: the transplant is seen as making the recipient “whole” once more (Lederer 2008). While many have commented on the various ethical issues brought forth by the clinical practice of organ transplantation, here we (...) are concerned with the idea of becoming whole from organ transplantation. The idea of wholeness that a transplant renders can extend beyond the physiological to the individual, the familial, and .. (shrink)

Con este artículo queremos mostrar que si bien los modelos democráticos liberal y republicano pretenden defender la libertad, y la igualdad de los hombres, sus prácticas generan gran marginalidad. Aunque desde el siglo XX se ha intentado corregir la marginalidad que generan, tal como se observa en los esfuerzos por mostrar que tanto liberalismo como republicanismo no son modelos tajantemente opuesto, reflexión desde la cual se ha propuesto un tercer modelo; Democracia Deliberativa, ese esfuerzo aún no logra su cometido. De (...) hecho en las críticas a este tercer modelo se observa que mientras se siga exigiendo condiciones de universalidad, especialmente de la razón como parámetro universal de argumentación, seguirá existiendo marginalidad, y en consecuencia necesidad de emancipación. (shrink)

The reference to the vagina as “it” or “down there” is symptomatic of two larger cultural problems: not naming the vagina when speaking about the vagina, and conflating the vagina with the external female genitalia. The euphemisms and obfuscating language have implications both for lay understandings of female bodies and for the practice of health care. Granting and using a name gives both the named and the namer power and legitimacy.

This article proposes a guideline to develop an ontology of software. The first section gives a brief introduction to the importance of such ontology as a possible conceptual grounding for the philosophy of software, philosophy of computing and philosophy of information. The second section presents the background of the scope of this article in terms of both a symbolic and materialistic approach to software. The third section deploys the basic guidelines with the expositions of the two dimensions of software: the (...) serial dimension and the structural dimension. The first dimension consists of three series, while the second in the exposition of the structure of any program. The fourth and last section will deal with a better understanding of what we can call the digital universe. (shrink)

A total of 1918 loci, detected by the hybridization of 938 expressed sequence tag unigenes from 26 Triticeae cDNA libraries, were mapped to wheat homoeologous group 4 chromosomes using a set of deletion, ditelosomic, and nulli-tetrasomic lines. The 1918 EST loci were not distributed uniformly among the three group 4 chromosomes; 41, 28, and 31% mapped to chromosomes 4A, 4B, and 4D, respectively. This pattern is in contrast to the cumulative results of EST mapping in all homoeologous groups, as reported (...) elsewhere, that found the highest proportion of loci mapped to the B genome. Sixty-five percent of these 1918 loci mapped to the long arms of homoeologous group 4 chromosomes, while 35% mapped to the short arms. The distal regions of chromosome arms showed higher numbers of loci than the proximal regions, with the exception of 4DL. This study confirmed the complex structure of chromosome 4A that contains two reciprocal translocations and two inversions, previously identified. An additional inversion in the centromeric region of 4A was revealed. A consensus map for homoeologous group 4 was developed from 119 ESTs unique to group 4. Forty-nine percent of these ESTs were found to be homoologous to sequences on rice chromosome 3, 12% had matches with sequences on other rice chromosomes, and 39% had no matches with rice sequences at all. Limited homology was found between wheat ESTs on homoeologous group 4 and the Arabidopsis genome. Forty-two percent of the homoeologous group 4 ESTs could be classified into functional categories on the basis of blastX searches against all protein databases. (shrink)

Although entrepreneurial intention has been widely studied using cognitive models, we still lack entrepreneurial vocation and, therefore, lack disruptive innovations. Entrepreneurship scholars have some understanding of the reasons underlying this weakness, although there is much room for improvement in our learning concerning how to promote entrepreneurship among university students, especially in the transformed context of digital technologies. This paper focuses on the early stages of start-up, and in particular seeks to evaluate what role social and psychological factors play in the (...) development of entrepreneurial intentions. Drawing on network theory, we consider the impact of social networks on entrepreneurial intention. Specifically, we analyze the influence of two types of social networks: face-to-face and online social networks, with the latter proving especially important in digital transformations. In addition, based on affective congruency theory, we relate affect with entrepreneurial intention. Particularly, we evaluate the influence of positive and negative dispositional affectivity on the formation of entrepreneurial intentions. Finally, since affect and emotions can also be related with social relationships, we analyze whether dispositional affectivities influence entrepreneurial intention through the mediation effect of social networks. Using structural equation modeling, we confirm the impact of both online and face-to-face social networks, as well as positive dispositional affectivity on entrepreneurial intention for 589 higher education students in Spain. However, negative dispositional affectivity is not seen to influence entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, both face-to-face and online social networks are influenced by positive dispositional affectivity. Moreover, these two types of networks can even partially mediate the relationship between positive dispositional affectivity and entrepreneurial intention. Positive dispositional affectivity can thus influence entrepreneurial intention in two different ways: directly and indirectly through both face-to-face and online social networks. This study provides further insights and adds to the literature on affect, social networks, and entrepreneurial intention. From a broader perspective, we also contribute to the literature on disruptive innovations by explaining how the development of entrepreneurial intentions would have positive consequences for university students vis-à-vis achieving these disruptive innovations. (shrink)

We distinguish two pathways people may follow when they join violent groups: compliance and internalization. Compliance occurs when individuals are coerced to join by powerful influence agents. Internalization occurs when individuals join due to a perceived convergence between the self and the group. We searched for evidence of each of these pathways in field investigations of former members of two renowned terrorist organizations: the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Islamist radical groups. Results indicated that ex-fighters joined LTTE for reasons (...) associated with both compliance and internalization but that ex-fighters joined Islamist radical groups primarily for reasons associated with internalization. When compliance occurred, it often took the form of coercion within LTTE but involved charismatic persuasion agents within Islamist groups. This evidence of systematic differences in the reasons why fighters enter violent groups suggests that strategies for preventing radicalization and fostering de-radicalization should be tailored to particular groups. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar qué significa “conocimiento trascendental” en la Crítica de la razón pura de Kant, especialmente a partir de una explicación de las razones por las que este modificó en la segunda edición la definición ofrecida en A 11s. En primer lugar, me centro en la concepción de la ontología de Wolff y Baumgarten, y explico por qué la definición de conocimiento trascendental que Kant ofreció en la primera edición había de resultarle insatisfactoria. En segundo (...) lugar, profundizo en las razones de la corrección introducida por Kant en 1787 (B 25). Sostengo que solo esta última formulación revela la originalidad del conocimiento trascendental con respecto a la ontología de Wolff y Baumgarten, debido a que tal formulación clarifica que el conocimiento trascendental se centra en nuestro tipo específico de conocimiento (unsere Erkenntnißart), frente a la indeterminación de la que, según Kant, adolece la ontología de sus predecesores. Finalmente, planteo una breve discusión crítica sobre la base de estos resultados. (shrink)

Political fact-checkers evaluate the truthfulness of politicians’ claims. This paper contributes to an emerging scholarly debate on whether fact-checkers treat political parties differently in a systematic manner depending on their ideology (bias). We first examine the available approaches to analyze bias and then present a new approach in two steps. First, we propose a logistic regression model to analyze the outcomes of fact-checks and calculate how likely each political party will obtain a truth score. We test our model with a (...) sample of fact-checks from Newtral, a major Spanish fact-checker. Our model would signal bias under two assumptions: a) all political parties are on average equally accurate in their statements; b) the verification method gives precise instructions and is implemented systematically. We investigate this second assumption with a series of interviews with Newtral fact-checkers. We show that standard verification protocols are so loosely implemented that fact-checks reflect a set of journalistic decisions, rather than a bias in the statistical sense. We call for a more rigorous definition of verification methods as a pre-requisite for an unbiased assessment of politician’s claims. (shrink)

B. Russell, Foundations of logic 1903-05, The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Volume 4, Edited by Urquhart, A. with the assistance of Lewis, A. C. London and New York:Routledge, 1994, Hi+ 743 pp. £100.

Historians and philosophers of science generally conceptualize scientific progress to be dichotomous, viz., experimental observations lead to scientific laws, which later facilitate the elaboration of explanatory theories. There is considerable controversy in the literature with respect to Mendeleev’s contribution to the origin, nature, and development of the periodic table. The objectives of this study are to explore and reconstruct: a) periodicity in the periodic table as a function of atomic theory; b) role of predictions in scientific theories and its implications (...) for the periodic table; and c) Mendeleev’s contribution: theory or an empirical law? The reconstruction shows that despite Mendeleev’s own ambivalence, periodicity of properties of chemical elements in the periodic table can be attributed to the atomic theory. It is argued that based on the Lakatosian framework, predictions play an important role in the development of scientific theories. In this context, Mendeleev’s predictions played a crucial role in the development of the periodic table. Finally, it is concluded that Mendeleev’s contribution can be considered as an “interpretative” theory which became “explanatory” after the periodic table was based on atomic numbers.Author Keywords: Periodic table; Mendeleev’s contribution; Theory; Empirical law; Interpretative theory. (shrink)

Theoretical problems concerning concepts of systems and measurement of behavior were encountered during experimental studies of the effects of electrical stimulation of the brain on the social behavior of a monkey colony. General problems involved in the description and measurement of behavior of natural systems, and especially of organisms are discussed. In animals with differentiated brain the general process of stimulation may be divided into four subprocesses: input, throughput, transput and output. Categories of behavior, temporal and spatial units, and logical (...) rules of homogeneity for sorting data and comparing measurements and categories, are discussed. Simple behavioral units are divided into: 1. Individual a. static or postural b. dynamic or gestural 2. Social a. static b. dynamic. Complex behavior is divided into: 1. Simultaneous 2. Sequential 3. Syntactic 4. Roles. The process of interpretation of data by the observer is assumed to be dependent upon actual behavior of the system, techniques of observation and experimentation, theoretical and technical processes of analysis, and synthesis and integration of data. Expression of behavior in mathematical terms insures greater accuracy than descriptive methods and enables data to be processed with computers. (shrink)

Este artículo ofrece una reconstrucción crítica de la teoría rawlsiana de los bienes primarios. Tras hacer una evaluación de las críticas de B. BaíTy, W. Kymlicka y A. Sen a esta teoría rawlsiana, el autor propone que la mayor debilidad del argumento de Rawls reside en el supuesto de "normalidad" que le subyace.

This paper maps and systematizes the different discourses around peace in the public sphere in Colombia during the context of the latest peace negotiations between the government and the guerrilla group FARC-EP. The analysis of the discourses of peace is boiled down to four main approaches: a. Peace is understood as a relational dynamic that allows for the deconstruction of the binary friend-enemy and the recognition of the other; b. peace is seen as a condition that enables security and the (...) deepening of economic development through neoliberal policies; c. peace is re-signified through the signifier ‘territory’, to refer to the need of local involvement to define and implement peace policies in order to take into account the needs from those living and being in the territories; and d. peace is proposed as the consecution of social and environmental justice, accompanied of an alternative development that ensures the autonomy of indigenous, black communities, and peasants to decide how they want to live, how they want to exist. The ultimate goal of this paper is to explore the power-resistance dynamics at play in the re-definition of peace during the window of opportunity that the peace dialogues represented. (shrink)

Previous studies on body ownership illusions have shown that under certain multimodal conditions, healthy people can experience artificial body-parts as if they were part of their own body, with direct physiological consequences for the real limb that gets ‘substituted’. In this study we wanted to assess (a) whether healthy people can experience ‘missing’ a body-part through illusory ownership of an amputated virtual body, and (b) whether this would cause corticospinal excitability changes in muscles associated with the ‘missing’ body-part. Forty right-handed (...) participants saw a virtual body from a first person perspective but for half of them the virtual body was missing a part of its right arm. Single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied before and after the experiment to left and right motor cortices. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were recorded from the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) and the extensor digitorum communis (EDC) of each hand. We found that the stronger the illusion of amputation and arm ownership, the more the reduction of MEP amplitudes of the EDC muscle for the contralateral sensorimotor cortex. In contrast, no association was found for the EDC amplitudes in the ipsilateral cortex and for the FDI amplitudes in both contralateral and ipsilateral cortices. Our study provides evidence that a short-term illusory perception of missing a body-part can trigger inhibitory effects on corticospinal pathways and importantly in the absence of any limb deafferentation or disuse. (shrink)

Este trabajo estudia los aportes y limitaciones del concepto de «régimen farmacopornográfico» propuesto por Paul B. Preciado junto con los pilares que lo constituyen: el farmacopoder y el pornopoder. El análisis será complementado con las aportaciones de otros autores, destacando las de Judith Butler, filósofe de referencia para el autor, cuyas teorías sobre el género y el cuerpo han influido de forma indiscutible en las posteriores investigaciones sobre la identidad. A través del estudio del pensamiento de ambos será posible llegar (...) a una mejor comprensión de lo que Paul B. Preciado denomina «farmacopornocapitalismo» y también dirimir las aportaciones y límites de la teoría del autor. Su trabajo ha sido indiscutiblemente revolucionario en materia de género e identidad, poniendo en tela de juicio categorías naturalizadas y exhibiendo las dinámicas biopolíticas de opresión y discriminación que encarnan nuestra existencia. Reconociendo esto, también debemos poner sobre la mesa los límites en su planteamiento, donde algunas veces la provocación le lleva a afirmaciones que difieren del objetivo final de su teoría: mostrar cómo actúa el control en los cuerpos y encontrar una salida a este. (shrink)

Resumen: En muchas lenguas las cláusulas adverbiales iniciales presentan una repetición del predicado de la oración anterior, lo que se conoce como enlace tail-head. Este trabajo busca describir las construcciones de eth del quichua santiagueño de acuerdo con dos parámetros: a) el grado de solapamiento semántico entre los predicados de la construcción de eth, y b) el grado de integración eventiva de la adverbial inicial con la cláusula principal. El primer parámetro permite identificar construcciones verbatim -con repetición exacta del verbo (...) anterior- y no verbatim -sin repetición exacta-. El segundo parámetro se manifiesta en la forma que adopta la cláusula “cabeza”. Así, se identificaron, por un lado, una forma converbal y, por el otro, cláusulas con los sufijos del sistema de conmutación de la referencia. La interacción entre estos dos parámetros muestra que las diferentes construcciones de eth poseen diversas funciones discursivas, en particular para la coherencia temática.: In many languages preposed adverbial clauses repeat the previous verb or predicate, which phenomenon has been termed tail-head linkage. This paper aims to describe THL constructions in Santiagueño Quichua according to two parameters: a) the degree of semantic overlap between the predicates of the THL constructions, and b) the degree of event integration of the preposed adverbial with its main clause. The first parameter allows the identification of verbatim constructions -with exact repetition of the previous predicate- and non verbatim constructions -without exact repetition-. The second parameter manifests itself in the form the head clause might adopt, where it is a converb or it takes switch reference suffixes. The interplay of both parameters shows that the different THL constructions possess diverse discourse functions, particularly regarding thematic coherence. (shrink)

In general, existential threats are those that may potentially result in the extinction of the entire human species, if not significantly endanger its living population. Among the said threats include, but not limited to, pandemics and the impacts of a technological singularity. As regards pandemics, significant work has already been done on how to mitigate, if not prevent, the aftereffects of this type of disaster. For one, certain problem areas on how to properly manage pandemic responses have already been identified, (...) like the following: (a) not being able to learn from previous experiences, (b) the inability to act on warning signals, and (c) the failure to reach a global consensus on a problem (i.e., in a timely manner). In terms of a singularity, however, it may be said that further research is still needed, specifically on how to aptly respond to its projected negative outcomes. In this paper, by treating the three problem areas noted above as preliminary assessment measures of a country’s capacity to coordinate a national response to large-scale disasters, we examine the readiness of the Philippines in preparing for an intelligence explosion. By citing certain instances of how the said country, specifically its national government, faced the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, it puts forward the idea that the likely Philippine disaster response towards a singularity needs to be worked on, appealing for a more comprehensive assessment of such for a more informed response plan. (shrink)

Shaughan La Vine, Understanding the Infinite.Cambridge, Massachussets :Harvard University Press, 1994, ix + 372 pp.£31.95/$47.95 B.Russell, Foundations of logic 1903‐05, The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Volume 4, Edited by Urquhart, A.with the assistance of Lewis, A.C.London and New York:Routledge, 1994, Hi+ 743 pp.£100 Ray Monk and Anthony Palmer, Bertrand Russell and the Origins of Analytical Philosophy.Introduction by Ray Monk and Anthony Palmer.Bristol, U.K.:Thoemmes Press, 1996. xvi + 383 pp.£48.00/$78.00 ; £16.95/$29.95 T.J.Holopainen, Dialectic & Theology in the Eleventh Century.Leiden:E.J.Brill, 1996. (...) vii+171pp.$78. (shrink)

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the approach to the health-disease system, raising the question about the principles of bioethics present in physician–patient relations. The principles while widely accepted may not be sufficient for a comprehensive ethical analysis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the perception of these principles and the physician–patient relationship during a hospital stay through a qualitative approach. Method Sixteen semi-structured interviews took place to know the patients’ perception during their 2020 hospitalization for COVID-19. (...) The data was analyzed through the constant comparison method, creating categories and comparing them. In the end, seven categories were established and were grouped in three: bioethical principles (dignity, charity, vulnerability, autonomy), doctor-patient relationship (participant commitment, informed consent, health staff-patient relationship) and the experience of the disease (illness, the role of the family). Results The research found that most patients described a positive experience, with the feeling of having been well cared for with no sense of discrimination or injustice done. The majority also reported that their autonomy was respected in the treatment decisions. The evaluation of these attitudes is an area of opportunity, especially when the patients' vulnerability is at risk. Conclusions The ethics of virtue offers a better reflection of how human beings manifest themselves by emphasizing the development of virtuous character and behaviors that allow them to realize their values in life. Authorized by the Research Ethics Committee with registration: DI/18/105-B/3/308. (shrink)