Within the current economic situation, poverty indexes in developed countries are becoming more and more alarming. This makes the role of food banks very relevant, and in addition contributes towards reducing the problem of food waste. Motivated by the social importance of these non-profit organizations, this paper analyzes the impact of food banks on the supply chains to which they belong. Differences in the functioning of these supply chains are highlighted attending to the relations induced by the food banks. First, (...) the international research background for this topic is summarized; then, the results of an empirical study in Spain are presented. Data were collected through surveys and analyzed using cluster methodology. Two different types of food bank were identified. These are described, characterized, and compared in terms of efficacy and efficiency. (shrink)

Melatonin is a hormone with complex roles in the pathogenesis of autoimmune disorders. Over the years, it has become clear that melatonin may exacerbate some autoimmune conditions, whereas it alleviates others such as multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disorder characterized by a dysregulated immune response directed against the central nervous system. Indeed, the balance between pathogenic CD4+ T cells secreting IFN‐γ (TH1) or IL‐17 (TH17); and FoxP3+ regulatory T cells and IL‐10+ type 1 regulatory T cells (Tr1 cells) (...) is thought to play an important role in disease activity. Recent evidence suggests that melatonin ameliorates multiple sclerosis by controlling the balance between effector and regulatory cells, suggesting that melatonin‐triggered signaling pathways are potential targets for therapeutic intervention. Here, we review the available data on the effects of melatonin on immune processes relevant for MS and discuss its therapeutic potential. (shrink)

The objectives of the present study were to adapt a grief intervention program to family caregivers of patients with dementia, and assess its effectiveness in improving the symptoms of grief and other health-related variables. The intervention was based on Shear and Bloom's grief intervention program, with the necessary adaptations for use in the grieving process for a family member's illness. A total of 52 family caregivers of individuals with dementia participated. They were evaluated using a battery of self-report measures assessing (...) grief, overload, resilience, post-traumatic growth, experiential avoidance, health-related quality of life, and benefits of care. The results suggest that the program is effective in improving grief symptoms, caregiver burden, resilience, post-traumatic growth, and quality of life of family caregivers. It is necessary to create and implement interventions targeting caregivers' feelings and manifestations of ambiguous grief, because there is a lack of programs providing an efficient solution for the mental and physical health of caregivers, and because of the human and socioeconomic cost involved in neglecting this group. (shrink)

Substantial advances in our understanding of the neural bases of emotional processing have been made over the past decades. Overall, studies in humans and other animals highlight the key role of the amygdala in the detection and evaluation of stimuli with affective value. Nonetheless, contradictory findings have been reported, especially in terms of the exact role of this structure in the processing of different emotions, giving rise to different neural models of emotion. For instance, although the amygdala has traditionally been (...) considered as exclusively involved in fear (and possibly anger), more recent work suggests that it may be important for processing other types of emotions, and even nonemotional information. A review of the main findings in this field is presented here, together with some of the hypotheses that have been put forward to interpret this literature and explain its inconsistencies. (shrink)

El objetivo que dirige este artículo es esbozar el modo en que, desde la filosofía para niños, es pensable un ejercicio crítico de la identidad y, a partir de ello, promover una revitalización del mundo político, entendido desde el concepto arendtiano de acción. Revelar los marcos referenciales y, una vez puestos de relieve, someterlos a una crítica dialógica, comunitaria, supone la posibilidad ―quizás utópica― de proyectar desde la niñez y construir a futuro un mundo digno de ser vivido. La metodología (...) utilizada es cualitativa, de corte hermenéutico. En el primer apartado se desglosa el concepto tayloriano de identidad en su vínculo con los marcos referenciales y la idea de bien. En el segundo acápite nos concentramos en el doble concepto arendtiano de mundo, como mundo circundante y como trama política. Finalmente, y tomando como punto de partida los análisis de Lipman, se esboza el carácter político de la filosofía para niños, entendiendo aquí lo político con Hannah Arendt. (shrink)

We consider several game versions of the cardinal invariants \, \ and \. We show that the standard proof that parametrized diamond principles prove that the cardinal invariants are small actually shows that their game counterparts are small. On the other hand we show that \ and \ are both relatively consistent with ZFC, where \ and \ are the principal game versions of \ and \, respectively. The corresponding question for \ remains open.

In the seventh and most recent edition of their classic book, Principles of Biomedical Ethics, Tom Beauchamp and James Childress define a virtue as a character trait that is “socially valuable and reliably present” and a moral virtue as such a trait that is also both “dispositional” and “morally valuable”. The virtues that they single out as “focal” within biomedical ethics are compassion, discernment, trustworthiness, integrity, and conscientiousness. Not all is well in their treatment of virtue. Beauchamp and Childress seem (...) to worry that an ethical theory in which virtues are fundamental will neglect duties, rights, and societal needs. Further, they insist that there is no reason to think that, within ethical theory, one family of ethical concepts is the most important, nor that one theoretical approach is correct, or even superior to others. I will try to show, that there are strong reasons to see language, concepts, and matters of virtue as fundamental within normative ethical theory, both generally and in such specialized subareas as medical ethics. These reasons reveal themselves when we analyze concepts at the core of the alternative approaches to theorizing ethics that Beauchamp and Childress identify. (shrink)

"Databases containing the accumulated genomic data of the research community are growing exponentially. This book contains cutting-edge insights from scholars, bioethicists and legal practitioners who work at the ever-changing intersection of law and bioinformatics"--Page 4 of cover.

This book explores the clinical processes of psychoanalysis by charting modern developments in logic and applying them to the study of insight. Offering an epistemic approach to clinical psychoanalysis this book places value on the clinical interpretations of both the analysand and analyst and engages in a critique on purely linguistic approaches to psychoanalysis, which forsake crucial dimensions of clinical practice. Drawing on the work of key twentieth century thinkers including Jerome Richfield, Ignacio Matte-Blanco, Gregory Bateson and the pioneering contribution (...) on insight made by James Strachey, topics of discussion include: the structure and role of clinical interpretation interpretation and creationism body, meaning and language logical levels and transference. As such, this book will be of great interest to all those in the psychoanalytic field, in particular those wanting to learn more about the study of insight and its relationship to clinical processes of psychoanalysis. (shrink)

We report general and consensus results of a survey administered to a defined population of economic science academics in Mexico. Our results include insights on economic opinions, scientific aspects of economics, scientific activities, countries' economic performances and methodological orientation. Our outcomes show areas of consensus which, at least partially, are consistent with findings in previous studies. Comparisons between our results and those of other studies suggest that consensus could be constant over time and that economics academics in Mexico seems to (...) show similar levels of skepticism about the importance of rationality assumption as those in other latitudes. (shrink)

Les Critical Legal Studies et ses divers tributaires ont fortement marqué la conscience juridique contemporaine. Ces notions ne sont plus simplement le domaine d’un collectif de juristes nord-américains, mais font désormais partie du discours académique transnational et influencent la formation de divers projets et demandes politiques, malgré leur impact négligeable sur la pratique juridique traditionnelle. Les mouvements de type féministe, racial, LGBTQ+ et postcolonialiste ont profité largement de l’énergie intellectuelle et de l’engagement inhérent à ses analyses critiques. En outre, ces (...) façons d’envisager le droit et de faire de la politique trouvent leur écho en plusieurs juridictions. Des manifestations parallèles, allant au-delà des États-Unis, mettent en évidence la portée de ces idées. Cet article a pour but de décrire, de façon succincte, l’évolution du CLS allant d’une série de critiques précises sur le droit états-unien jusqu’à des discours généralisés, répandus dans divers circuits transnationaux de pensée et d’action. (shrink)

A genuine bioethics would be fiercely devoted to human life (bios) and would express that devotion by articulating as well as advocating moral virtues that rigorously protect that value against the temptation to see life in purely instrumental terms. In my view, no genuine bioethics exists today. In what follows, I will question two fundamental assumptions often presumed in discussions of euthanasia and assisted suicide. These are (i) the agent does will her victim (i.e., her putative beneficiary) some significant human (...) good, e.g., relief from pain, escape from becoming a burden to loved ones, a dignified death, or simply self-determination; (ii) in purposely helping someone to kill herself or in killing her for her own good, the agent wills her no serious harm. Put differently, I question the assumption of ‘mercy’ in so-called ‘mercy-killing’. (shrink)

En este ensayo se examina de manera crítica el desarrollo de la filosofía analítica y, en particular, de la filosofía analítica latinoamericana. Se propone que esta última adopte un giro político y uno pedagógico con el fin de recuperar su espíritu original y reconectarse con la tradición intelectual latinoamericana. This essay is a critical examination of the development of analytic philosophy and, in particular, of Latin American analytic philosophy. It is argued that the latter ought to adopt a political and (...) pedagogical turn in order to recover its original spirit and to be reconnected to Latin American intelectual tradition. (shrink)

This paper examines the points of disagreement between Petrus Camper and J. W. von Goethe regarding the existence of the inter-maxillary bone in humans as the link between man and the rest of nature. This historical case illustrates the fundamental role of aesthetic judgements in scientific discovery. Thus, I shall show how the eighteenth century discovery of the inter-maxillary bone in humans was largely determined by aesthetic factors—specifically, those sets of assumptions and criteria implied in the aesthetic schemata of Camper (...) and Goethe. I argue that the relevance of scientifically ascertainable morphological properties that count as evidence for the existence of bona fide anatomical structures depend on the aesthetic schema adopted by the communities assessing the classification. At the same time, I propose and explain mechanisms by which aesthetic considerations might determine the acceptability of empirical claims about the world. Based on the reconstruction of the arguments of Camper and Goethe, I conclude that aesthetic considerations play a substantive role in both the generation and preliminary evaluation of scientific hypotheses. This paper suggests a complementary relation between the mediation of aesthetic criteria in theory choice and in scientific discovery in that while aesthetic considerations in theory choice lead to conservatism; in the context of discovery they often lead to innovation. (shrink)

Resumo O objetivo do texto é relacionar a abordagem expressivista do agente moral em Nietzsche com as condições de sucesso de avaliação de juízos práticos perfeccionistas. Como locus da transformação, o agente moral se exprime por meio do potencial transformativo que consegue produzir, e não como entidade por trás das ações. Duas condições podem ser usadas, regulativamente, para avaliar o sucesso de juízos de caráter perfeccionista: por um lado, a maximização de conexões e interrelações no espaço, bem como o endosso (...) afirmativo de promessas no tempo e, por outro lado, a boa constituição que alguém mantém em meio à tensão entre um plano individual e supraindividual. No desdobramento do potencial transformativo, crítica e transformação são interdependentes e, além disso, o julgamento público reforça a dimensão social da filosofia de Nietzsche.The aim of the text is to relate the expressivist approach of the moral agency in Nietzsche to the conditions for successful evaluation of practical perfectionist judgments. As the locus of transformation, the moral agent expresses him/herself in the transformative potential that he/she manages to produce, and not as an entity behind the actions. Two conditions can be used, regulatively, to evaluate the success of perfectionist judgments: on the one hand, the maximization of connections and interrelationships in space, as well as the affirmative endorsement of promises in time, and, on the other hand, the good constitution one keeps in the middle of the tension between an individual and supraindividual plan. In the unfolding of transformative potential, criticism and transformation are interdependent and, moreover, public judgment reinforces the social dimension of Nietzsche's philosophy. (shrink)

This book brings together a series of insightful chapters about the emerging topic of character education in the university. As the editors of this volume state, most recent initiatives aimed to cu...

Carlos Eduardo Alchourrón y Eugenio Bulygin efectuaron contribuciones de fundamental importancia para el desarrollo de la teoría de los sistemas jurídicos. Sus ideas evidencian una evolución de la presentación de una visión estática a una visión dinámica de tales sistemas. El objetivo central del presente trabajo consiste en mostrar que existe, no obstante, una cierta tensión en las tesis sostenidas por los autores entre dos concepciones diferentes de los sistemas jurídicos: por una parte, aquella que trata de reconstruir el conjunto (...) de las normas que resultan relevantes para la solución de un caso; por la otra, aquella que trata de ofrecer una caracterización satisfactoria del derecho como institución. Las diferentes finalidades que cada una de esas reconstrucciones persiguen obligan a refinar algunas ideas vinculadas con la dinámica del derecho para evitar derivaciones incompatibles con las intuiciones jurídicas ordinarias. Carlos Eduardo Alchourrón and Eugenio Bulygin have made contributions of fundamental importance for the development of the theory of legal systems. Their ideas reflex an evolution from a static to a dynamic vision of such systems. The main purpose of the present paper is to show that, notwithstanding, there exists a certain tension in the thesis defended by Alchourrón and Bulygin between two different conceptions of a legal system. On the one hand, a conception related to the reconstruction of the set of relevant norms to solve a certain case; on the other, a conception related to a satisfactory characterization of law as an institution. The different concerns of each of those reconstructions force to refine certain ideas associated with the dynamics of law to avoid derivations which appear incompatible with ordinary legal intuitions. (shrink)

A considerable number of books and papers have analyzed normative concepts using new techniques developed by logicians; however, few have bridged the gap between the English legal culture and the Continental tradition in legal philosophy. This book addresses this issue by offering an introductory study on the many possibilities that logical analysis offers the study of legal systems. The volume is divided into two sections: the first covers the basic aspects of classical and deontic logic and its connections, advancing an (...) explanation of the most important topics of the discipline by comparing different systems of deontic logic and exploring some of the most important paradoxes in its domain. The second section deals with the role of logic in the analysis of legal systems by discussing in what sense deontic logic and the logic of norm-propositions are useful tools for a proper understanding of the systematic structure of law. (shrink)

The focus of Jones’s essay is the role that the notion of intensity either plays or ought to play in a Whiteheadian ontology. This two-fold focus, exegetical and revisionary, results from Jones’s conviction that the notion of intensity represents Whitehead’s most basic and revolutionary metaphysical insight, but that Whitehead failed to develop his ontology in a manner fully consistent with that insight. Accordingly, Jones not only provides an interpretation of Whitehead’s concept of intensity, but also critiques and revises Whitehead’s ontology (...) in order to expand the role intensity plays in it and to purge it of whatever doctrines or distinctions endanger or cloud what she takes to be the notion’s absolute fundamentality. This done, Jones tackles yet a third task: to bring her understanding of intensity to bear on the development of an ethical theory based on the metaphysics of Whitehead and on the moral philosophy of Iris Murdoch. (shrink)

The perspectives of genomic citizen scientists on ownership of research outputs are not well understood, yet they are useful for identifying alignment of participant expectations and project practices and can help guide efforts to develop innovative tools and strategies for managing ownership claims. Here, we report findings from 52 interviews conducted in 2018 and 2019 to understand genomic citizen science stakeholders’ conceptualizations of, experiences with, and preferences for ownership of research outputs. Interviewees identified four approaches for recognizing genomic citizen scientists’ (...) ownership and related credit interests in research outputs: shared governance via commons models; fractional ownership of benefits; full and creative attribution; and offensive and defensive patenting. Interviewees also agreed that the model selected by any project should at least maximize access to research outputs and, as appropriate and to the extent possible, broadly distribute rights of control and entitlements to research benefits. (shrink)

¿Cómo justificar la validez jurídica de aquellas normas cuya creación no puede ser evaluada como regular o irregular por apelación a ninguna otra norma jurídica? Entre las respuestas más ilustres a este problema se cuentan la norma fundante kelseniana y la regla de reconocimiento de Hart, pero cada una de esas ideas ha sido objeto de serias críticas. Eugenio Bulygin ha efectuado aportes decisivos en esta discusión: ha advertido que cuando se examina el fundamento último de la validez de las (...) normas jurídicas es preciso discriminar un sentido prescriptivo y uno descriptivo de validez, y que la norma fundante de Kelsen no es sino el producto de una confusión entre ambos; ha resaltado que la regla de reconocimiento debe interpretarse como una regla conceptual que especifica los criterios de identificación de las normas jurídicas, y ha señalado que las normas de competencia no pueden reconstruirse como normas de conducta. Si bien con tales aportes ha sentado las bases para ofrecer una solución, su reconstrucción requiere de ciertas precisiones para poder ser considerada una respuesta enteramente satisfactoria a la pregunta respecto del fundamento último de la validez jurídica. How is it possible to ground the legal validity of those rules whose creation cannot be assessed as regular or irregular by reference to any other legal rule? Kelsen's basic norm and Hart's rule of recognition are among the most famous answers to this question, but both ideas have been seriously challenged. Eugenio Bulygin has made decisive contributions to this discussion. He has shown that in the analysis of the ultimate ground of validity of legal rules, two different senses of validity should be distinguished: a prescriptive and a descriptive sense, and that the Kelsenian basic norm is nothing but the product of confusion between these two different senses. He has also claimed that the rule of recognition has to be understood as a conceptual rule specifying the criteria of identification of legal rules, and those power-conferring rules cannot be interpreted as prescriptive norms of conduct. Although these contributions have provided a basic framework for a possible solution, Bulygin's ideas need a refinement in order to be considered as a satisfactory answer to the question concerning the ultimate ground of legal validity. (shrink)

El pensamiento ético y bioético es una de las áreas de conocimiento recurrentes en el ejercicio reflexivo del profesional de la salud en Cuba; sin embargo, se detectan insuficiencias relacionadas con imprecisiones y falta de claridad en el pensamiento ético-moral por parte de este personal, según se observa en materiales evaluados para su publicación, en los ejercicios para el proceso de obtención de categorías docentes y en la presentación de las evaluaciones de posgrados. El artículo tiene el objetivo de argumentar (...) precisiones teórico- metodológicas para la elaboración de trabajos en ética y bioética. The ethical and bioethical thought is one of the recurrent areas of knowledge in the reflexive exercise of health professionals in Cuba. However, according to the observations of evaluated materials for their publication, in the exercises for the process of obtaining educational categories and in the presentation of postgraduate evaluations, inadequacies related with imprecision and lack of clarity are detected in the ethical-moral thought on the part of health professionals. The article has the objective of arguing theoretical- methodological precisions for the elaboration of works in ethics and bioethics. (shrink)